Sister Kolipoki

I am here in Villawood! So many changes in the last week it has been unreal. Heavenly Father has really blessed me with a peaceful heart this entire week. He really does love us and I testify that Jesus Christ lives. So at the request of my loving parents I am going to try my best to update you on everything! So Villawood is not far from the pool so it is very similar, BUT it's quieter and more peaceful. Probably because we don't live next to the major mall like Liverpool. My companion came straight from the MTC and her name is Sister Fifita. I have accidentally called her "Sister Fahita" numerous times but all is well because she has a great sense of humor which is HEAVEN SENT. I laugh too much and It is more fun when you have someone to laugh with you! She is full tongan and she is from New Zealand. We went grocery shopping and right when we walked in she busted out in dancing to the music that was playing. I laughed so hard and then i was like that's a no no haha. It was hard to leave the pool, but again my heart has just been full of so much peace. On Tuesday i went to the mission home and all the trainers had dinner and we had a big spiritual party. We talked about the work and how we could help these new missionaries to love this sacred calling as much as we do. Then we ate and talked and Sister Back made homemade cookies! These were the first homemade cookies I have had apart from the ones the Johnsons sent me from America haha. Then the next day we met the new missionaries and I took one home! (which I hadn't been to yet haha) So i decided that on our way back to the flat that i was going to have her drop her bags off and then take her tracting without even looking at the area because i wanted her to let go of all her fears and help her to know that we are here to work hard. Guess what? THE FIRST person we talked to ended up becoming a new investigator, he came to church and he has a goal of being baptized the second week of march! MIRACLES! We have had so many lessons in the past 4 days and we are getting to know everyone really well! We went to church yesterday and THE ENTIRE WARD IS POLYNESIAN! I counted 3 other "Palangis". Dreams really do come true. I love Polynesians because they are always so happy. Plus they just laugh and care about the things that really matter. Also, my flatmates are tongan. So America has definitely been defeated and I am officially tongan now. Hence Sister Kolipoki. I see miracles everyday. EVERY. DAY. There was heaps that happened last week too but I can sum it up with ice skating, finding our investigators son who ran away, 5:30 AM workout with bro tekere,miracles, miracles, and more miracles!

Shout out to BROOKE! Sister Carpenter is back to America and she served so so well! Love you so much Brooke! Thanks for being such a great example to me! 

Love,

Sister Jake

better best better better best?

Hey i will email next week! These past few days have been crazy and there are heaps of changes! I am leaving the pool! :( But i am really stoked for the new adventure i am about to embark on. I just wanted to share something i learned this week. A member said to me, " Better better best. May your feet never rest. Until your best is better and your better is best." There is no end to becoming better. 

Love you all!

-Sister Jacobsen

Nemo

Big News. Finding Nemo took place in Australia! And the address "P sherman.. Sydney" actually exists here! I hope my excitement way conveyed through this email! So on Tuesday we celebrated Australia Day! Everybody was drunk, but it was cool because we were able to help people onto trains and some of our investigators opened up and said things they probably didn't want to say that helped us know their needs more haha. Always look on the bright side right? So this week was somewhat slow because we weren't able to have solid lessons with our investigators because of Australia Day and the numerous storms that have been occurring! One minute it will be scorching ant the next minute there will be flash flood and massive bolts of lightning. Pretty fun. One member just came out in his swimmers and stared sliding along the floors because it looked like a pool! We also saved our neighbours flat from burning down on Australia day! BUT THE TIPIWAIS are great! We committed Kylee to read to Chapter 2 and she read to Chapter 12! We committed her and Ricky to be baptized and they said yes! This family is massive! The day they enter into the covenant will be absolutely wonderful! They were able to share their testimonies with us this week about Church! It has really changes their lives. They haven't missed a day of church since this year started! We found out Kylee and Grant aren't married but they've been engaged for 15 years! So their will be a wedding before the baptism :) Good thing they have recently been talking about making it legal! Well i will send some pictures or else i will get in trouble with my mum! Love you all! Transfers are next week and lets hope i stay in the pool! 

Love,

Sister Jake

P.s. Mark 8:35

P.s. Sometimes you have to teach something 7 times in 7 different ways to get someone to do one thing. 

Dawn

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA JAKE!

I have no time so i just want to share one experience!

We had gone to a retirement home because a member had asked us to go visit an elderly lady in our ward that lives there. He said that her living conditions are not pleasant and its not the best life so she would really love a visit! We went over right before heading back to the flat on Saturday and it was about 8:20 so we knew we had to be quick. She is partly deaf and is handicap so there would be very minimal communication. We found her corner that she lives in. She shares with another elderly lady and when we walked in we saw her Church clothes hung up and ready to go. The lights were turned on and her face lit up! Dawn was so happy to see us. We said a prayer with her and decided we would sing her a song. We asked her what her favorite hymn was and she yelled out Hymn 219! When we looked up the Hymn it read "Because i have been given much!" She sang the entire song out loud with us. It was special. She has a taxi pick her up to go to and from church everyweek. She has her priorities straight. I can promise you that i learned so much more from that lesson than Dawn ever will. When we got back to the car, i just stared crying. It was a great experience! Other than that our investigators are doing Great! The vision is becoming real. We have ward council members coming with us multiple times a week and Bishop is coming with us this week and we are hoping to make some solid plans.=!

I LOVE YOU ALL! I WILL SEND A BETTER EMAIL NEXT WEEK!

LOVE,

SIS JAKE

Bats and Roaches

My Dearest Family,

I have no time to write. I apologize, but what's new? A couple of really quick updates! Emma received her interview with President Gomez and it was very positive, we still need to talk with her more about how it went! The Tipiwais are really excited for their baptisms, we are still working with Brother Tipiwai, they came again this week and President Back got to meet them. Oh how i love him. He decided to tag along to our ward! They are the BEST NOT THE BACK! We believe Bishop pulled Brother Tipiwai out of Gospel Principles class and interviewed him. We are having dinner with Bishop's family on Wednesday so we will talk to him then! The work is great and i never want to leave.

Update, there are bats, spiders, and cockroaches.  Last night i captured a flying roach and i set it free off the balcany of our flat. Our Neighbor Mick just laughed at me. We accidentally almost went to the sydney opera house on the bus! Have you ever tried making homeade popcorn with coconut oil? It's the best! TRY IT! Today we are going to a tongan farm for P-day! I am way stoked. I AM 10 PAGES AWAY FROM FINISHING THE BOOK OF MORMON! The book is true. I pray time and time again and i get the same answer. I love you all!

Love,

SIS JAKE

P.S. John 14:27

P.S. Ether chapter 12 is great

The only way to win is to lose

Wow this week i just can't even put into words! Ok so update on the Tipiwai family! Yesterday was one for the records, the entire Tipiwai family came to church, they came in a pack of 12! It was so beautiful! I will never forget that sight! So we were talking to the grandchildren about who would want to baptized them and they wanted their grandfather to! He has been Inactive for a while and just recently started coming back, but we asked him and guess what? He wants to! He said that he needs to get back into church though! So we are going over tonight for FHE and one of the ward council members is coming with us on Wednesday to sort things out! I really want to make things happen! I've been fasting because i know we need the Lord's help! This family is ready. It is the time right now!  Also, church switched to 9:00 so we knew it would be hard to get Emma to come but She and Ebony came! She also has recently been staying for the other meetings as well which is great! Emma is still overcoming the WOW. The next date that we extend to her, we want to make sure it happens. The ward is ready for her to become a member as well! We just want to make things happen! I know that conversion takes time and every investigator is different! I could honestly stay in the pool for my entire mission and be immensely happy. President has joked about that but i really would!! 

I hope everyone made goals this week! I actually hadn't received a priesthood blessing yet on my mission aside from the departure from the MTC. Pondering about going into the New Year and the 5th transfer here I felt prompted to receive one! So i did! The blessing was so inspired. In it i was told to make and set goals! It also talked a lot about my future family which i wasn't expecting and it talked about my investigators! SOoo my Goal for this year is to Give my Will to God. You know that scripture that talks about how when you lose yourself you find yourslef? Well i want to lose myself and i know i will do that if i give my will to GOD. The only way to win is to lose! It's funny because when we give back to God we are actually just returning everything that he has already given us. The only thing that we can truly give to him as a gift is our WILL. I also made spiritual, emotional, and physical goals as well but that is my overall goal! I just love how we can ALWAYS progress! I started a miracle Journal and have really enjoyed writing down miracles that i see every day. I read an article about smiling to the blind. It related to miracles and talked about how we just need to open our eyes and we will see them. We can see them TODAY. I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Jacobsen

P.s. Somebody slashed our tires this week along with 5 other cars on the block so guess who is tire changing worthy? Yup it's me! It was actually really fun, and our neighbors are so nice and a bunch of them totally came and helped us! The people are so nice here! 

Also, we are half back on bus! The elders now have the car. I lasted a transfer without giving it to them but now i have lost the fight because the AP's said we will be sharing with the other sisters! I am still working on my humility and prayed for forgiveness for being stubborn! But the BUS is great! I forgot how much i loved it! The only reason why we wanted to keep the car was so that we could see more of our investigators! I will send pictures next week!! Love you heaps!

Christmas at Costco

I am staying in the Pool! This is my 5th Transfer here! So happy! President told me that i won't stay another transfer though. We have seen miracles already! One of our investigators, Stevie Rae, came up to us and told us that she wants to be baptized. Then she walked away. It was so beautiful. The cool story about Stevie is that she is actually a grandaughter of a less-active family we have been working with for a while! Sister Tipiwai became active about two transfers ago and now her husband has been coming to church. Her unbaptized daughter and grandchildren have been coming to church as well! The extended family also went to the ward Christmas party and temple lights! So we went to visit them earlier this week and it turns out both Stevie-Rae (10) and Madison(8)want to get baptized! Missionaries have been working with these grandchildren for a long time and they know the book of Mormon stories so well. When we asked Stevie why she wanted to get baptized, she replied, "I want to go to the Celestial Kingdom." The family is on board for the 16th of January! We talked with Madison's mum about her baptism and she said that her goal is to go to the temple. We invited her to be baptized and she said it will eventually happen but i want to see my children baptized first. That was a highlight of this week. 

Ok i forgot about Christmas! It was great! Skyped the family and it was wonderful! To be honest we didn't even say anything too important, it was just great to see their faces! Congrats to Briar and Brad who were married yesterday, which is technically today because i am a day ahead! I love you both! Went to Costco for Christmas eve and the members showered us with goodies and perfume! We had to stay in Christmas eve so President let us watch movies! We watched Tarzan! We had a massive sleepover and we were allowed to stay up late and sleep in on Christmas!

I came to realize that your Life's greatest work is YOU. When everything in your life is removed. When you are stripped of every worldy thing and every person you know and you stand completely alone, what do you see? Who will you be? We are constantly changing.  We are either internalizing qualities of light or qualities of darkness, i really want to change my nature. I want to give God my entire self. I want to be ready to stand in his presence. I know i will always have weaknesses, but life is about progressing and changing. I don't just want to change my behavior, i want to change my nature and work exactly according to God's will, not my own! The work is great and i love being a missionary! Love you all heaps! 

-Sister Jacobsen