June 23, 2014

Well good golly! what a week! I forgot my planner so forgive me for leaving things out this week. But anyways, Elder Hatch is getting transferred!! But he's gonna be a Zone leader! I totally called it! hahaha super funny. :) He doesn't want to be zone leader  but I know he'll love it :) haha. It'd be hilarious if he become the new Zone leader in our zone! cause there's only two zone leader spots open. But it'll be fun :) I don't know who my next companion is yet. I really hope he's chill. I told Hatch, "If he's a loser I'm gonna be mad at you" hahahaha :)

 

We had a lot of other lessons this week with investigators, but every one in the branch was busy all week. So we didn't get any lessons done with a member present :/ So that stank pretty hard, but we did get a lot of good lessons with our peeps :)

 

Hahaha, I tried to patch up my tire on my bike and no matter what I did, it wouldn't work. I came to the conclusion I'll have to buy a new tube, but I have no idea where to buy a tube like mine. hahaha so pray for me still :) cause we've been driving everywhere and our miles are gonna be completely gone soon. haha

 

 Man I'm having a hard time remembering our week....

 

Yesterday I showed Elder Hatch the book I have people write to my future wife, an idea I stole from my good friend KoozKooz. Where people write a letter in a book to this girl about how lucky she is to have a fantastic man like me as her husband :) ahaha, so Elder Hatch started making one as well. It's really funny to read what people write in it :)

 

This lady in our branch, Sister Sherri, reminds me so much of Aunt Cindy, she kind of looks the same way Aunt Cindy did a couple years ago :) hahah it's really trippy. So I call her Aunt Sherri hahah :)

 

 On Saturday, we helped Ruth Walters clean more of her house cause it's still all burned and stuff hahaa. and she gave us Boxes and boxes of food and soap and a bunch of other stuff. Such a blessing! hhahah it was much needed :) we helped her out for like 4 hours. and we were able to find her Large Print book of Mormon that I found under a pile of other burned stuff, the Book of Mormon was untouched! super cool :)

 

 I've sat here looking at the screen for 15 minutes trying to remember, but this is what I came up with :/ I'm all burned out. Sorry

But I love you all :)

Love, Jacob :)

June 16, 2014

I can't believe I've been in Baxley for 5 weeks already! This has been probably the fastest transfer for me! Mainly because we're striving to always be effective and busy! I love it :) But  A LOT happened this week :)

 

For instance? There was 3 tornadoes in Baxley this week, 1 was just a mile and a half away from our house! But it was so tiny that no house got hit. BUT STILL... A TORNADO!! haha :) That storm was crazy! We got home at like 9:20 (driving home surrounded by huge lightning strikes) and our power was out.. So we got our CD player, some Christmas music, and listened to it, drinking chocolate milk, and sat on the back porch and watched all the lightning surround us :) It was a beautiful experience :)

 

Lol, this isn't as cool.. but we ran out of milk, and we're out of food pretty much except for cereal. and no milk. so we go to "The Girl Next Door." Who's a total "Georgia Peach". Hahaha. But we asked her for some milk. It was just funny to me :)

 

But one of our potentials, Ruth Walters, her house set fire!! This house is massive! It even has an elevator! But we went over on Saturday and helped her move things around and throw stuff away. It was really sad. We only helped for a couple hours or so, but they were so appreciative and awesome :)

 

But after that, we got home and shower and change and all that jazz, and to save miles, we decide to go bike around and try to talk to people on the street, and we were doing so good!! We had a lesson with someone on the street, and like 6 contacts in like 15 minutes!! just awesome, and we head over to GoodWill to contact more people.. and maybe buy a tie or two or whatever :) but we got like.. not even 10 feet from GoodWill... and my tire pops.. I can't help but just laugh. but when my tire is stopped leaking I still heard some air leaking, I look at Elder Hatch and say "Dude, I think your tire popped too." He's all "Nah, that was just yours." "No man, I promise it's yours." I grab his tire and it's popped as well!! Hahaha. So we end up walking home for 2.5 miles. It took us almost an hour! Flippin ridiculous :P We were walking home and we felt so defeated.. cause we have no money to fix our tires either! hhahaha so we'll be walking or driving everywhere!! SO just wish us luck :D haha

 

OH! Ok, this is probably the highlight of the week. Reggie, an excommunicated member who is more faithful than most members, comes out to teach with us. and we ran out of people to go see and he's all "We could go see my friend Evelyn" So we go talk to her (this is a couple weeks ago) and we've been going back to teach her every week. She's the most sweetest and cutest thing in the world!! She has a problem that makes it so her body can't absorb almost any Vitamin D and her bones are so very brittle. She can't lift her head up and down and she stays in a wheel chair. She's just so... amazing. I've given her a blessing, Which was one of the most heartfelt blessings I've given. and she's feeling tons better. But yeah, I love her so much! but we pull up to church yesterday, feeling defeated cause no one was going to be at church, and we see Reggie pushing someone in a wheel chair, and it was Evelyn!! We were just awe-struck! She loved church too! She was participating in sunday school and everything :) just a great Sunday :))

 

In Sunday school, I was in super deep thought... We were learning about the Life of Jesus Christ, and I was super quiet the entire time. But I was reading and listening deeply. I had found this scripture which I'm sure is my absolutely new favourite scripture. John 15:13-16

"13 Greater love‍ hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life‍ for his friends.

14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command‍ you.

 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard‍ of my Father I have made known‍ unto you.

 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen‍ you, and ordained‍ you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that‍ your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."

It just hit me really hard out of nowhere.

I just love Jesus Christ so much. We went over to Russ's house again (We go over every Sunday) and we watched Bible Videos about the life of Jesus Christ and this death and resurrection :) I almost started crying. Hahah. It was just such a good day yesterday :)

 

I know that Jesus Christ died for all of us. He suffered and bled for each and everyone of us. He was hung on the cross. But more importantly, than all of that, he rose again. He came back from the dead, resurrected. So that we may be resurrected as well to live with Him and Our Father AGAIN. So we may have eternal joy :) and everlasting peace :)

I love you all so much :) I miss you all. I hope y'all are making right decisions and I Hope y'all miss me a lot as well :) hahah

 

Love always, Jacob :)

June 9th

It's all gravy baby!! :)

Allllrriiggghhhtttyyy then! :) so this was one of our best weeks in Baxley Georgia!! We had a bunch of lessons! :) We got members to come out with us and members make such a big difference!! Their testimony strengthens the lesson tenfold!! :) We brought Brother Beverly with us this last week twice! What a swell guy! Very cool story about him, is that he can't read (not a lot of people can read down here). He was sharing this story with a person we met. "I can't read. you could put me in front of the Bible and I can read a couple of words here and there and same with the book of Mormon. But Paul (a member who moved away recently) gave me CDs that read it for me as I follow along. and I got to the point that I can read the Book Of Mormon without the CD's! " This man who can't read the newspaper, was given the ability to read the Book Of Mormon and parts of the Bible now with the grace and power of God :) It was just so reassuring to hear that from him!

 

I talked this last week in Sacrament meeting. Very difficult without 24/7 access to LDS.org and stuff. hahaha. I talked about 2 prophets in particular. Noah and Enoch! Noah preached repentance to people and they didn't listen and they all died. Enoch did the same. He preached repentance to people, but these people listened, and became so righteous that God took the entire city into Heaven, cause they were of one heart and one mind. Great stories :) I compared it to now, how we have a prophet on the Earth today, preaching the same thing the prophets of old did. We need to listen to their words and hearken and act upon their words if we plan on living with God again :)

We hosted a blood drive at our chapel, for a member, Jerry Branch... He's in the hospital in Savannah, with Leukemia. It's a very sad story that I don't have or remember all the details. But it was looking really bad for a while.. We had a branch fast, and this blood drive, and the doctors are now saying he's got a 60% ish of living now. Which is improving.

 

I don't know if I drank something weird. But I've been having the CRAZIEST dreams lately. It's been hysterical truly. But it was a really good week :) I love the people here. It's a pretty hard area. There are over 250 different churches in our area, and not a single one of them is The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! So it's pretty hard to get people to drive 20-30 minutes away to come to church for 3 hours, when they can go in their backyard and start a church (some people do) or walk 2 minutes and go to church for 45 minutes. So it's actually a pretty difficult area. But It is progressing I feel like :) President Hester (branch president) gave Elder Hatch and I the idea to fast for the area's progression like Alma the younger did for his area. haha :) so we tried it out and it must have worked, cause We got someone to church :) Her name is Deedee. We've been teaching her for about a month and she hasn't really made any commitments, but she came to church! She enjoyed it too!  That's the extent to my week I believe :) Have a fantastic week and I love you all! Find people to write me cause I'm lonely and bored on P-days :(

 

Love much, Jacob :)

June 2, 2014

Crashed my bike! hahaha. I hit a trashcan and I flipped over the handlebars, I landed on my elbow and realized I would get hurt doing that so I maneuvered so I would land on my helmet so i didn't get hurt :) it worked surprisingly haha. the bike is okay too! but that's not the worst story about the bike. So we were on exchanges, I was with Elder Hunsaker, and Elder and  Sister Foster (senior couple) and they were giving us a ride to our appointments cause we were out of miles. well, something came up so they had to go back to McCrae, so we had them drop us off at our apartment and it was about 4:30. We looked at our planner, and we had an appointment at 6. I looked on the map... IT WAS 11 MILES AWAY. I was pretty upset... So.. we started biking. haha, We got there at like 4:40 ish, but when we got there, they weren't even there!! can you believe that?! but their son was there and we taught him the first lesson. he really liked it all :) we'd teach him more but he leaves for the Army on June 11th.

we had interviews with President Cottle on Saturday, and since we didn't have miles, we got a ride to McCrae and had the McCrae elders give us a ride there. but we get back from interviews and all that, we got dressed to do service in McCrae, and Elder Hatch locks the apartment door cause he thinks everyone is done. BUT, he locked the keys and phone inside the apartment.. So that was fun. Lol.

We got a ride from the Fosters to take us back to Baxley, and when we get to our apartment door and the Fosters have driven off... elder Hatch mumbles "Uhm.. I forgot the keys." !! So we were locked out of our own apartment for 1 hour. We had to have the landlord come and unlock it. Within 5 minutes of us getting inside it starts pouring rain. The streets were flooded pretty bad. and it was recorded that within 1 hour there was about 280 strikes of lightning. It was really crazy, but very beautiful at the same time. Wish I had taken pictures of the lightning. 

The Branch is so tiny! It's so different to me! I'm used to a fair sized ward where you only talk once like every 6-8 months! I've been here for 3 weeks and I'm talking next Sunday in Sacrament meeting! I get to speak on following the prophet, so it shouldn't be too hard. I just hate public speaking with a passion. But I did bear my testimony yesterday. :) It was a really good meeting! I really enjoyed it! The only downfall here, is that one of the sister Missionaries reminds me of a close friend I had back home and that makes me trunky. The way she talks, looks, acts, her attitude, everything. hahaha. I complain to elder Hatch about it every day. Elder Hatch is the best! he's such a good example! He's always trying to find ways to improve and he loves everyone! 

In my testimony, I shared the thought I've been thinking about lately about a blacksmith. When a Blacksmith is making a sword, he gets it really really hot and then puts it on an anvil and gets a hammer and beats the crud out of it and whacks it! I shared my thoughts on how I feel like I've been beaten and whacked a lot. But when a blacksmith is done, he picks up the sword and looks at it. he'll know it's done when he sees his own reflection in the sword. Heavenly Father is our blacksmith and we are his sword! He's going to let us have our trials, but when it comes down to it, when we're finished, He should see His reflection in us. and others should see that we are His sword with His reflection when they look at us! and then I shared the scripture Doctrine and Covenants 24:8 (I'm paraphrasing) "Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have many, but endure them, for lo, I am with the, even until the end of thy days." This scripture has meant a lot to me on my mission cause I memorized it and then a week later it was quoted in General Conference several times. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want to be with us. We just have to open the door. He's already suffered for us. We need to do our part and follow his commandments and He will make all things easy. Cause through Him, ALL things are possible :)

Our main investigator, Russ, told us yesterday "Guys.. I'm really thinking about being baptized soon. Who do I talk to to get that rolling?"  We were in awe! we were like "US! TALK TO US!" hahaha, it was really cool cause he's been taking lessons for like 3 years or something like that :) but I've come to love the people of Baxley, mostly. They're really loving and caring. And everyone likes to talk about Jesus! hahaha. That's really the best part about the South!! you just have to say "Hey, y'all wanna talk and learn about our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ?!" and every one likes it :) but there are a lot of different faiths and religions that are reallllllyyyy out of wack. hahaha. I'll leave it at that. but these peeps be CRAAAAZZYYYY .

That's really all. I loveyou :) Live long and prosper.!! <3

May 26th

Fun fun week! Went on Exchanges with Elder Young! we were in Douglas and we just talked to everyone. A lot of people were super funny and really nice. We ran over and killed a possum. Really cool :P

 

Elder Hatch and I are super super low on miles, so we've been biking everywhere. just on Saturday alone, we biked around 20-ish miles! But It's all gravy baby :) We're going to join the gym today and start going hardcore! He's going to take some legal steroid pills and I'm going to take a dietary thingy. hahaha.  We've been talking to everyone we possibly can. It's been fun but a bit difficult. It's hard to just open your mouth and just speak. But we're getting better.

 

We went to Russ Carters house. He's an eternigator. Lol. He's been looking at the Church for a while. He's an eternal investigator. He goes to church every week and knows all the doctrine. He just hasn't been baptized. We had a very good discussion about the church while we were over there. He's a fur trader or something like that. He catches his own animals, skins them, fleshes them, dries them out and sells them. We were helping him out with that :) We staple the Hides to a board and hang board up and that's how it dries. haha. He catches Beaver, Racoon, Coyotes, and Hogs. We just help him out with the beavers. but it is a lot of fun. Elder Hatch put a beavers face on his and I took a picture of it. It's very weird cutting a beavers face off. ahah.

 

But I forgot my planner back home. So I don't remember much of what happened this last week. sorry for the short email. but I love you all :)

 

<3/ Jake :)

May 19th 2014

Well then!! Got transferred!! Hahaha.

 

 Got sent to Baxley Georgia!! It's a teeny tiny place! There's not even a building for church here. The nearest one is like 35 miles away. And with Hazelhurst and Baxley combined, it makes a huge branch of like 35 people. hahah. I didn't know that branches actually existed!! I thought they were just a little myth! But yeah. Tiny little branch. They had me go up and introduce myself and all that Jazz. It's a nice place here :)

 

Stupid me forgot my helmet in Grovetown... So we're driving everywhere and now we have almost no miles left. haha It really stinks.

 

Elder Hatch though! Oh my gosh! He's fantastic!! He's from Spokane, Washington! Super cool guy :) We hit it off right away! I love it!! On the ride back, the member who was giving us a ride asked Elder Hatch if he'd ever marry a black lady and he said yes so brother McCall yelled "AHHH!! YOU NIG--R LOVER!! YOU'RE DIRTY!" HAha! I almost died! Everyone here is pretty much racist. It's flipping hilarious :) Elder Hatch is like my twin I swear! He's the best :) He calls me Whinnie the Pooh a lot of the time, or his little friend in Spanish. :P He's just hilarious :)

 

But it was a good week! Met a lot of nice people! Very busy! Taught a lot of lessons :) People are so nice here, most of the time.

 

Elder Hatch got pulled over! hahaha! He did a California Stop at a stop sign, and right as he went, I saw a cop and was all "Oh crap. Copper." and right as I said that, his lights went on. So Elder Hatch got a citation. $196! Geez! We're so poor!! We've been living off of burgers and bread! hahaha. I forgot all my food in Grovetown and I spent all my money. But this lady at Church came up to us and gave us 20$!! What a blessing! We were able to buy groceries today :)

 

Wish me luck :) Love you all!! :)

 

Jake <3

May 12th! Mother's day!!!

Hey guys! Busy week! Jeff is super excited for his baptism on May 31st! He's asked me to baptize him as well! Hopefully I can :)

Transfer calls were this last week. Elder Shelton and I both thought we were leaving cause he's been here for 6 months and I've been here for almost 5. :) but, much to our surprise, we both are staying! Crazy awesome :) he's been one of my best friends these last 5 months. He's done so much for me. 

Talking to everyone was awesome! Definitely wasn't expected at all :) but it was a blast. Lol. Ended up talking for about an hour and a half or so and Elder Stilson kicked me off, then he ended up staying on for 3 hours. Haha. But i made dinner for the Kasper family. :) made some cheese burger macaroni and also cupcakes for dessert :) it was fun. It was my good deed cause I couldn't make dinner for Mum back home. 

That really was all. But I'm at a members house and using his iPad so idont wanna take up too much time. I love you all. Thank you for everything you've done. :)) 

Elder Johnson