A Bittersweet Symphony

Dawn patrol matagalpa.

Wow! Time is such wierd thing. when i was in Esteli i felt like i was in a big lul that never passed. Now i feel like I'm at Playa Domincalito and there are so many waves and so much to do and i cant get enough. 

One More Week. This week some great things happend. Some of my personal mission goals were completed. More than those things though, The stake of matapalpa was 95 percent approved by the area presidency. Couple of little technical things and we are gonna shred matagalpa. God is too to me and these people. I know i say this ever week, but i have never been happier.

little "Bittersweet Symphony" going on right now. It's hard to wrap my head around somethings but i know God is coaching this little life of elder jake and you just gotta have faith in the play. 

To be honest i feel three things. Humility, sadness, and gratefulness. Humility for how great the blessings have always been. Sadness because i love these people too much. And grateful for a real and loving God that has rescued one of His wayward sons. 

There are so many changes that have happened in two years. unless you have served a mission you really cant understand how many little things god changes in you if you let him. My ugly face is the same. My dumb and inappropriate jokes continue. My love for ball and shred are still present.

However the biggest change that God has brought about in elder jacobsen is a love and unbreakable faith for and in his Savior Jesus Christ.

I love all of you dudes, festers, aunt shannies, sleezies, jakes, christensens, ladies, and friends and everyone else who has been a part of my life. 

ya me voy! 

Where is the Wetsuit When I Need it?

dawn patrolito. 

conference was good. its harder to feel the spirit in nica general conference but i did love it. the little tykes did a ragnar in the chapel and a group of 5 year olds ran around the center pews more than 100 times. i am enjoying it while i still can haha. 

we baptized francisca and katarine this week. both great ladies. i would have asked for a wet suit this week. the water was way chilly and i only went in waste deep. i love the people here so much. 

Humility. That has been the staple of Elder Jake's little mission here in nicaragua as i think about the things that i have learned over the last couple of years. my attitude is everthing now. I love the people here. I love you guys too.  

stay sleezy. 

Monkey Tails and Squirrel Butts

(Sometimes the exchange between a nine year old and his brother is better than a letter.)

Hi Dylan, I love you.  Have a nice day.  I won the championship in TYBL.  I played really tough. Dad did not get a technical. Our team party was at Aerosports a trampoline park.  I’m so excited to go to Nicaragua but I hope I don’t barf up some cow tongue!  
Love, Bryce

I love you Bryce. Don't worry about the food here. We are gonna eat some great monkey tails and squirrel butts when you come. You wont even throw up. Today i had a giant hot dog with jalepeños and ketchup and other crazy stuff all over it. and for just a dollar!  Nice job on that championship win i love you little man!  Dylan

Because I guess having custom "I'm with that guy" ties made is what you do with 8 weeks left.

God Is Good to Me

A lot of success lately. We baptized four this week and have a couple more next week.  God is so good to Elder Hobbs and I.  He has done everything. 

We have been having a lot of success. We have some amazing converts!  I am so focused right now.  More than I have been in my whole mission.   

Hearing about Rizzo hurt. I wanna be there for him. He is a strong kid and will do great. 
(One of Dylan's closest friends was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  I struggled with how to tell Dylan about his friend.  Dylan was able to get a message to him and looks forward to being home soon to be a support to him however he can.)

Congrats to Maddy and Collin getting in to BYU i am so excited to hang with you next year. Happy Birthday Kate. We are gonna shred so hard on our boards when i get home haha. 

Love you guys so much. Don't get too trunky! Cuz i am not!  Laterrrrrr!


Pictures of the TSUNAMI of converts he prayed for! 

Praying for a Tsunami

dawn patrol matagalpa. 

Things are freakin awesome here. Hobbs is dope. We are retaking the shark tank and baptizing a ton of people its awesome! 

We baptized 2 awesome people this week. Dennis is a 20 year old who loves the Lakers and is the branch president's best friend, so dope, and Sandra who is 40 and awesome lady who didnt care at all when her entire family came over on the day of her baptism and told her not to get baptized. She got in the shark tank anyways! We also brought 17 investigators to church this week. We are praying for a little tsunami this weekend. 

Elder Jake and Elder Sirrine

Hearing about Sirrine's dad was very hard. I asked president if i could call him later that day. I have never really cried hard on my mission before but that was an emotional phone call. Elder Sirrine is a man. I have more respect for him than any other missionary in this mission. (On President’s day Elder Parker Sirrine’s father Robert Sirrine passed away in Mesa, AZ.  Dylan and Parker were companions in Managua while they served in the office.) 

I am aware of how much time I have left. It doesnt effect me. It only gives me more of a desire to do more than I have ever done. I have made some promises with God recently. I have made some important changes so that all this time away from home and with this people means something and lasts after I am no longer here. 

Love you guys, Stay Sleezyyyy 

Sometimes you just have to take it like a man!

One Love

Dawn Patrol Matagalpa

First week here on the swell search with Elder Hobbs. Shark tank is back. We are shredding it out here. We are gonna have a dope time together. Elder Ferrin headed off to Esteli and is doing well. Gonna miss that guy. 

This week Derling Aguilar took a little swim. We hooked it up for Sunday and he and is 2 recent convert member buddies all showed up with some new white shirts and ties and took the Freddie Clemons seat right in the splash zone. The are all so sweet. 

I am really feelin the pressure with this stake buisness here in Matagalpa. I feel like i am back in the office again a little bit with all the office-paper work stuff we have to do as we try to re organize branches and re distribute the members so that we meet qualifications. On top of that we got some serious goals baptism and assistance wise. All that has gotta be lookin good for the end of March. 

I know i say this every week but i love Nicaragua. This place has changed me. And i love this change. 

I have learned more about my Savior and his love in this short time than i had throughout the course of my entire life. As i have learned to take a step back and genuinely try to understand and appreciate his role in life, i have been able to see so many changes in my life and in the lives of others. I think about myself less. And try to recognize Him more. His love is singular. There is nothing matched or similar. There is one love. It heals all wounds. It is the source of true happiness.   

Making an effort to recognize it has made all the difference. I see it right now as i watch our teenage recent convert try to provide for his family of 8, hauling bags of sand for 9 hours a day. I feel it every Sunday when we go out to the jungle and take the sacrament under a tin roof and on a dirt floor and hear the rats and chickens run around under our seats. I felt it purely as we tried to teach a young teenage girl who is carrying a child resulting from abuse, how this love can heal everything. 

My father is an example of this love. I see in him more attributes of my Savior Jesus Christ than in any other person. He has learned to forget himself and bring that love into the lives of so many others. I remember being a sophomore in high school and thinking how much i hated that my father was always gone because of his calling and service in church and that other people took time away from his own family. I had to travel thousands of miles to understand all of that. 

One man's words here in Matagalpa changed my life. "I am poor. I dont have many things. I have my family. And I have the love of Christ in my heart and that is all that matters."

Another man said it like this: 

One love

One blood

One life

You got to do what you should

One life

With each other

Sisters

Brothers

One life

But we're not the same

We get to 

Carry each other

Carry each other

One...life

One

28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this gracewherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

His love is everything. It has changed my life. It will change yours. One love. 

Love you guys. stay sleezy. 

Messi's Streak Comes to an End

sup everybody. dawn patrol matagalpa. elder ferrin and i are sweet. 

i have been very healthy for the most part. just blisters on the bottom of my feet from playing so much freakin soccer will all my boys out here. kate you better watch out girl cuz Dylan has some moves now... well not really but its the only thing i got right now haha. never thought i would get hyped up over a soccer game but now i am like gpa jake running all over and yelling at all those little brown dudes. 

this week the streek ended. had someone in the tank every week since i left the office but we had a last second little mess up with this 15 year old kid named christian we have been visiting. he is a cool kid. hell be going in soon. 

2016. it is incredible how fast the time has passed. I love my life here in the mission an i know it will only be better in the future. 

I had a great interview with president this last week. we have become really good friends over these last two years. I asked him a few questions and we talked about going home in a few months. 

Nicaragua has changed my life. i dont ever want to lose the things that i have learned here. My life has been so much more meaningful as i have made an effort to understand what role my savior jesus christ plays in my life. And he is everything.

love you guys. stay sleezy.

                                                         THE MANY FACES OF A MESSI WANNA BE