WHAT A CRAZY WEEK!!! - 13 October 2014

Hello Everyone!!!!!!

It has been the first real week with my new companion in Capoa Bonito because of all the traveling we did for conference and going to the temple!!!!

THE TEMPLE!!

On Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to the temple in CAPINAS!!  It was so cool!! What an awesome temple! We got to take  a lot of pictures and spend some time walking the grounds before  we went in for the session!! but the Session was very good!!! They have a new film!!!! holy cow its cool. haha. I have learned so much here on the mission and having the opportunity to enter the temple every 3 to 6 months has been such a blessing!! i have learned so much more every time!!!

TRAINNING

Training Elder Gonzales is a lot of fun but sometimes he acts just as I acted when I got here and did not want to listen. haha I wanted to feel like I knew what I was doing even when I had no clue and so I did not let my trainer instruct me as well as I could have.. haha... and so I am seeing myself now in my 'SON'  and I am just trying to be patient and remember how I felt when I got here. haha But I have loved training!!! it has been a bunch of fun and we are just having a blast here!!!! or at least I am hahah Elder Gonzales is having a hard time walking a lot but he is coming along just fine!!!! He is going to be a GREAT MISSIONARY!!!

DL

Being district leader is fun!! haha I like getting to be more involved with the other missionaries that are in out district!! we only have 6 so the work load is not that difficult and its good practice!! hahah but I think my favorite part is getting to know everything that is happening in the zone!!! I know that as I do what I am supposed to do the Lord will qualify me for the work!

tomorrow I will be giving my first training at district meeting. We are going to learn about asking inspired questions. I just pray it goes well. haha but I'm really excited!! hah

DATES

We have three investigators that have dates marked to be baptism in the coming weeks!!!

SUALI, DAVID, AND MARIA!! 

Suali and David went to church yesterday and liked it a lot!!!! also we had GILMAR at church yesterday but he does not have a date marked yet!!! yesterday was awesome. We had everything arranged for members to pick up our investigators and me and Elder Gonzales went  to go get GILMAR. When we got to his house he was still sleeping and said he had a head ache. haha I told him that if he went to church it would pas, and I told him that we would wait for him to get ready!!! hahaha we waited for him about 20 min. and then walked to church together!!! hahaha at first he did not want to go but when we got to the church he thanked us for getting him to wake up and come to church!!!! and he liked it a lot. But what was better was that when we got to church with Gilmar, DAVID showed up as well!!! First time in 5 weeks that we got people to come to church!!!! hahah what a blessing!!!

When I got to church with GILMAR I did not have time to se if Suali came or not. But after the first class ended I saw here com our of the class room with the other members!! I asked her if sister Anna had picked her up and to my surprise, SUALI HAD COME ALL BY HER SELF !!!

What a Golden investigator!!! With three people in the chapel it made the HOT week of WORK Worth it!!! haha!!

Well It has just been a great week!!! I love you all so much!!!! I'm going to go sleep! haha until next week!!

                                              love

                                  Elder Bryan Jacobson!!!!

help!! 

so I have to ask for a special request :) 

being that both me and my companion are broke and have not received our reimbursements from the temple trip can you please call the bank and transfer more money on my card please... we have district meeting tomorrow and I need money to take the bus!!! HELP!

TRAINING - 6 October 2014

THIS, like Andrew, has been a great week of training my new companion Elder Gonzalez!! He is from PERU and is very excited to be on the mission following the example of his parents and brother!!!

I would have to agree with Andrew that I think I will be the one that learns the most this transfer but I am doing my very best to teach him the best I can!!! What a responsibility!!!!! haha:) 

This week we did a lot of travelling!!! first I traveled to the mission office to get my new companion and then went home to Capao Bonito very late the same night!!!   But although we have not had tons of time in our area because of all the travel we have worked out some great miracles!! 

Elder Gonzalez and I had studied about contacts on his first morning... our president focuses a lot on contacts...so we practiced and practiced and finally worked out a system. We then set a goal to not let a person pass. Our lunch fell through so we went to the bank to go get money to buy food. At the bank there was a young man having trouble with his machine, so I thought I might set the example of TALKING TO EVERYONE!! HAHA

We talked and he was very excited about what we had to share!!! We marked a day to pass his house and got his address. 

The next day when we passed by we got to meet the humblest family I have met on my entire mission. They were really searching to follow God and to do his will. When we shared our message the mother said that she was looking for something that could make her happier and said that she had seen us in a dream she had.

We invited then all to be baptized for the 18 of Oct!!!!! ( please pray for this family they are going to need all the help:)  GILMAR, JOANA the mom, and NICANDRO.  Thank you so much!!!!! 

We also marked a date with SUALI who was a contacted we did with the woman with two huge suit cases that we carried half way across the small city to her house!!! haha but it was totally worth it because she has been so prepared to accept the gospel in her life. WE are so excited to see what happens!!! 

We are also working with EDSON still and had the KEEP or CUT lesson last Friday. He is having trouble with having to be baptized again. He Knows the Book of Mormon is true and is going to be praying to know what to do. We asked him to pray with us and ask if the Book of Mormon was true.

NEVER on my mission have I heard a prayer so heart felt on my entire mission! He is going to know that this is true for we have that promise.!! Please pray for him as well he is going to need our prayers! 

The Lord is blessing us here it is so clear. we are seeing the hand of the Lord everyday so clearly!!! I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!! 

Tomorrow I am going to be going to the TEMPLE in CAPENUS!!! I am so excited and will have pictures of this beautiful temple for you next week. 

Have a great week everyone and I'll talk to you next week!!! 

                                                   Elder Bryan Jacobson

hello again,

I wanted to write an email just to you and the family to please pray for me in my new calling as district leader so that I will be able to handle all of the new responsibility.

 and as well  be able to train my new companion Elder Gonzales  with the spirit so that he will gain a great desire to put all of his heart into the work of the lord.

I love you all so much and know that the lord is blessing me and preparing a way for me and my companion to do all things!!!! 

I know that when the Lord gives a call he provides a way!!! And I know that I will be lead and guided by the holy ghost to know what to do!!! 

I love you all so much and I am so grateful for this opportunity to be STRETCHED!!! haha I loved Elder Richard G. Scott's talk!!! haha. 

        I have learned so much here on this mission and I am so grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to learn so much more.

                                         love you all 

                                  Elder Bryan Jacobson

No Money - 29 Sept 2014

Hey sorry everyone but I have no money today to stay on the computer today haha, but I did want to let you know about some changes that took place today!!!!

 

This coming transfer I will be the DISTRICT LEADER for our district ITAPEVA!!!!! THE BEST DISTRICT IN THE WORLD!!!!

I am going to be staying here in capao bonito for my third transfer and I will also be TRAINING my first SON!!!!!! HAHA I don't know who it is yet but I go to pick him up at the mission office tomorrow!!!!! I'm so excited!!! this transfer is going to be full of miracles and I am so excited to see how the Lord will work his mighty hand here in capao!!!!!! 

 

I wish I had money to write more about what happened to our GERMAN INVESTIGATOR but it will have to wait.

 

I love you all so much!!!!! and I'll catch up with all the emails next week!!!!

 

ow and mom and dad:  I got two huge boxes in the mail this week!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

 

CAPTIN CRUNCH IS THE BEST !!! AND PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!WOOOOOOOW THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

IT MAKES MY DAY COMING HOME AFTER A HARD DAY AND EATING PEANUT BUTTER AND BEEF JERKY!!!!!

ow how I have really missed this stuff. haha well sorry but I got to go already!!  I love you all so much!!!!

 

Ow and thank you so much Webber family for your awesome letters!!!! Got another large stack the other day!!!! hahah I love them thank you so much!!!!!!

 

 

I love you all so much have a great week!!!!!

 

                                                       ELDER JACOBSON (BRYAN)

The Blue House - 22 Sept 2014

Dear Family!!

This week was quite an adventure!!! Starting in tuesday I went to district meeting and then got to stay with Elder Carney in my area for two days!!!! I met Elder Carney in my first district and now he is in my zone here again!!!! It was nice to have two days to talk to one of my best friends on the mission!! 

But here we got to go explore a new city that is part of our area here to see if we could start another branch in this area that has been closed for a number of years. We got on bus and it took us about 45 min. to get to the other city BURRI!! 

When we arrived and got off the bus we had 3 different people yelling MORMONS MORMONS!! from their cars and houses!!! haha it was a very cool entry into this small town!! haha. but the cool thing happened when we went into the city office to get a map so that we could find the less active. And when we got there we met a family that was there as well and they came and talked to us and said that they were members of  the church but then stopped going when the chapel closed in burri!! IT was awesome. we got their address and are trying to get them to come to church here in capao Bonito!!! 

The next day on the division we found a man that said that he wanted nothing more than to live with his wife and kids forever!! He told us how his wife had passed away and he would do anything to love with her again!!!!!! From this we did what all missionaries do!!! PROMISE ALL THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL and invited him to be baptised!!! He said YES and committed to be baptised on the 4th of next month. sadly he didn't come to church yesterday so his date fell. 

Then at the end of the day we got in contact with EDSON AGAIN!!! And had the best lesson i have had in awhile!! He is the contact that I did awhile ago. he is traveling now but when he gets back we are going to baptise him!!!! 

Something really cool happened to us yesterday!!!!! NOSSA!  So about a month ago me and my companion were in the street and we had no one else to visit. and we didn't know what to do. I told my companion that I was going to pray and ask for something to do. I told my companion that every time I do this we always find the coolest family!   So I prayed and I pointed to a blue house on the street and we went and talked to this old man but it wasn't anything special. haha. Latter his wife came home and we talked a lot with her but again nothing special happened.  We didn't even get a lesson in with them. They just wanted to talk realy! haha so we just talked and said a prayer at the end and left. and never returned....but yesterday president of the branch here gave us a referral of a family that was looking to better their relationship. We went to the address yesterday and IT WAS THE SAME BLUE HOUSE!!! I had completely forgotten about this house. The daughter of the couple is living in Cuitiba and met the missionaries there and then told the missionaries to find her parents that are here to help them with their marriage!!! crazy right!!! 

THE LORD WORKS IN AMAZING WAYS!!!!! HOLY COW HOW CRAZY!!!

I have two other stories but my time on the computer is finishing. This week was AWESOME!! just full of miracles!!!!!! 

Ow but i have to tell one more real fast!!! We met a person from Germany here and he does not speak portuguese so PERFECT I GOT TO SPEAK AND TEACH HIM IN English!!! His name is David and I'll tell you more about him next week when we go teach again!!! 

But just something that I learned this week. My companion has helped me in so many ways and this week he pointed out that I was being way to forceful with the people here and that I just needed to relax and teach calmly and let the spirit teach the people and not just my forceful words!!! How right he was. I have found that I have kinda lost the love and gone to the you need to do all this to be saved!! But I need to have love for these people and just let the spirit teach them!! gosh I wish I had more time to write all this. I hope it is making sense!!!! 

Lesson learned: MY words wont make the difference in the lives of these people only the spirit can do that!!! I talked a long time with my companion and worked out a new teaching style that has worked way better for us and I'm very excited to see how it works this week!!! 

Just really like this picture of Joseph Smith!! A great reminder to me that nothing I go through is more than I can handle and that everything I go through is for my good. I read a great quote this week that when we are facing hard times, if we are able to face it with a positive way it will strengthen us so much that when we have to face the next trial we will face it with more faith and more patience until the day when we will be able to face all trials like this man JOSEPH SMITH. With patience and love for God and for the opportunity we have here to struggle, learn, and grow!!! 

And now I really have to go!!! 

It was such a great week this week!!! love you all so much!!! 

love Elder Jacobson!!!! 

Visiting the Rich - 15 Sept 2014

Hello everyone!!!!

 

This was the hottest week of my life!!! haha 95 to 100 in a white shirt and tie is such a blessing. haha right Andrew!!! haha. and then I just had to laugh when I heard about Brealynns mission call because my zone leader from last transfer is from their and it does get very hot!! but Elder Brito that is from joã pessoa is always telling us how much he loves his home and how beautiful it is. He says it looks like the united States!! haha. Elder Brito is one of my best friends on the mission and if the people are anything like him Brealynn, you are going to love them so much!!! but I'm sure you are going to love them no matter what.

 

This week me and Elder Alvis tried something a little new. I have to admit that he is ``dying´´ so we have to come up with some other tracking activities to make it a lot more fun!! haha and it worked like a charm to help us stay more excited and keep feeling the spirit even when the day is not going so well!!

So this week we decided to preach to the rich people!! haha. We have one area here that is very rich and has the reputation of not very receptive. But we new that their had to be someone ready. so after our lunch. we went to this area and started talking to everyone on the streets, in their yards, everyone!!  and sadly everyone said..... NÃO!! BUT  that didn't matter we just kept going and going.... and going..... until finally we hit THE BIGGEST HOUSE ON THE BLOCK!!! HOLY COW you would not believe the size of this house. I was tempted to take a picture, but I didn't.

 

we rang the doorbell and waitted.... and waitted.. and waitted. My companion started to turn away and I said joking-wait it always takes rich people longer to get to the door because they have a lot of ground to cover...haha

 

We waited just a little longer and then we heard someone messing this the lock on the door!!! yes!

when he saw us we didn't even have to say anything. he just said ELDERS COM IN COM IN!!!

We went into this huge house and talked with this sweet old man for about an hour!! he was telling us that he had already talked many times with the missionaries and loved what we were doing trying to help people.  He told us about the work that him and his son do for free to help people with cancer and today we went to his work and got a tour!!

We haven't even shared a message or anything with him but I can tell that they are feeling the spirit, and many times it works better to just be friends to the people.  We marked a day to visit them again!!

 

Also this week we got to work with IGILSON who was a referral from the ward. He had already been to church and we got to talk to him yesterday!! The lesson was awesome.. One of the best we have had here in campao bonito!!! We marked again for next sunday and pray that he goes to church again!!!!

 

Tomorrow I will be going with our Zone leader Elder Carney to a new part of our area that is about 30 min. away using the bus! We are going to be visiting a lot of members that we have there and looking for a lot of new people with the president of the branch! I am very excited to go and see what we can do in this new area!!! Today after getting a good rest my companion said ` elder we are going to work so hard these next few weeks!!! ´ and ow yes we will!!! haha im am so excited to see what the lord has in store for us!!!

 

I love you all so much!!!!

congrats Brealynn one more time!!!!!!!!

 

have a great week everyone!!!!!!

                                                                                          love

                                                          ELDER BRYAN JACOBSON!!!! 

In the Lord's Time - 8 Sept 2014

Something really cool happened this week with what me and elder Alveis did last sunday.

Last sunday we did not go to the church meetings and stood outside and invited everyone to go to church and we had two people enter but they only stayed for about 20 min. and then left.

but yesterday we decided that it was fun and so we did it again. And we found the same gut that came to church the week befor. haha his name is Paulo. So we walked up to him and asked if he wanted to go to church again. By the time we found him, sacrament meeting was about to start so we invited him to come in. He said yes again. haha

He watched the entire meeting of sacrament and at the end said that he was going to bring his family to church with him!!! haha

We marked a night to go visit him and his family. But i just thought it was so cool that he came back!! haha. the lord works in strange ways!!! Something the lord is just really trying to teach me is that he is the one that is always in control of the work!! Always. 

Everyday that i do my best and just turn it over to the lord with faith HE always provides a way and provides so many blessings. 

This is something that I really have to learn here and learn it good!!! That I don't need to have doubts as to whether we are going to succeed because with the Lord on your side you always will. 

MAKE THE LORD YOUR ROCK AND YOU WILL NEVER EVER FAIL!!!

                                             Elder Bryan Jacobson

Traveling - 1 Sept 2014

Well this week was a different week being that we spent a lot of the week traveling to conferences. This week we had a meeting with one the members of the 70, Elder kites. so After we traveled back home from our district meeting we had a late lunch and then our entire district gathered at our house in capao bonito. from their we traveled 3 hours on  a bus to SOROCABA!! How i had missed this place. this was were i had district meetings in my second area!!! It was so cool to get to return. We arrived at elders house there about 6pm. There was about 16 elders that all met at their house!! fun fun!!

That night we all went out to eat at an all you can eat pizza house!!! I ate 17 pieces of pizza!! haha. and no i have not gotten fat yet!! haha but i did start doing a lot of exercise after that night. 

The next day we had out meeting with Elder Kites!! 

It was pretty sweet: 

First president Farns and sister Farns gave a cool lesson about the Plan od Salvation and how we as missionaries need to be teaching everyone the plan of salvation so that they know why they need to apply the gospel principles to their lives. It as a very powerful lesson about the eternal effects of the work that we are doing here. 

Then Sister farns, who is still having a very hard time with portuguese shared a story and bore here testimony of the plan of salvation. She is awesome and i know that she is just suffering right now but she is going to be so awesome here in a few months. Her testimony is so powerful and you can just tell that she loves the lord more then anything else on the face of this earth. 

President and sister farns talked about how they have been so blessed and it is because they have always put the lord first in all that they do. 

Second Elder Kites gave a talk on diligence and then talked about how we can receive personal revelation!!! 

Never before have i thought about first nephi chapter 1 and 2 in such a way before. 

As a family tonight, go back and read these two chapters and see if you can notice the patterns of how Lehi received the visions and instructions that he received. 

It is the key to how we all can receive revelations in our own lives each and every day!!!! 

When we finally got home from all this it was late thursday night so we just went straight to our house and slept. I was so tired because i was not able to sleep at all the night before because it was so hot in the house we stayed in.

After the conference and a great nights sleep me and my companion were excited to apply what we learned to our work. we tried to get in contact with all of our investigators but not a single one was home.:( then we went to the person that we had a baptism date marked and we caught him hiding from us:(:( It was such a frustrating day!! 

The next day we new that we needed to find all new people so we started again talking to EVERY SINGLE PERSON WE SAW!!! sadly everyone said no. and that ended saturday.

then on sunday we got up and ready to go to church. We had left some notes with some investigators that we didn't get in contact with to be sure to go to church. When we got to church we waited but none came and they lived way to far away to try and go get them. 

so then me and Elder Alves thought of a great idea!! 

LETS INVITE EVERYONE TO COME TO CHURCH!!!

We stood outside the church on both sides of the road and invited every person that passed by to come and visit THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST!!!! 

we got two people to come to church with us for one hour but then they left and said they had to go do something. but we got their addresses and they happily said they would like us to come visit their houses!!! hahah. It was the best time i had doing street contacts on my mission!!! hahah!!!

Well that about sums up what happened this week!!! and another great week to come!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!!!! 

                                                   Love, Elder Jacobson (B