letter from Jacob 2.6.2012

Hola Familia!
Wow what a week! we really didn´t have a lot of lessons. And we walked alot. But I feel pretty good as a missionary. We have been working really hard. So the week went like this...
Monday - It was pday. So we went to the apartment of some other elders. We picked up our mail, and my garments that I bought. We had no lessons that night, but we worked until it was time to go home.
Tuesday - We always have district meeting in the morning, then we get on a bus to go to our lunch, and then after lunch we go to work. We didn´t have a lesson until 6. But we found a REALLY AWESOME investigator. His name is Michael. He is a Paraguayan of Ukranian descent. He told us that he could see that god sent us to him, because he needs to follow the lord. So we are teaching him now. We also contacted Ronaldo. He works in the "Tabacalera del Este" Where they make cigarettes.
Wednesday - we had a few lessons, they were good. Really our plan was to walk around and talk with everyone we saw, we didn´t have any new investigators. But We worked.
Thursday - we had our weekly planning, and after that we had interviews with President Callan. We got home about 6:30 in the evening from interviews, and then we worked. We had one lesson. But we worked till we had to come home. :)
Friday - We had lots of lessons, with Ronaldo, we shared with him the message of the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon, a really good lesson. After that we went and taught Michael again. He was outside waiting for us, We invited him to get baptiZed and accepted. He told us he knew it was true, because the church is everywhere, and if it were false, it wouldn´t be everywhere. He said an awesome prayer too. We also shared with the Torrales Family, they don´t speak Spanish, just Guaraní. So Brother Chavez came with us to translate. They promised us they would come to churCH.
Saturday - This was a normal day of walking. We Visited the Koff Family, the Hermana Koff was very sick, but she felt better from a blessing we gave her. We showed them the Pictures of our families. And they were disgusted by the Buffalo.
Sunday - We got up early to be at the church at 7:30. The Torrales Family was waiting outside all dressed up for the member who picked them up. They loved the church and said they are going to talk as a family to see if it is something they want to do. The Brother Torrales chewed a member out and told him that the family comes before the church. We finished the day super tired, and were very ready for bed. But we worked until we had to go home.

I have learned that in diligence, even when stuff is hard, we will see miracles, even if the miracles look super small, they could be like the Torrales family, that are super excited to get baptized. So Family be diligent.
I love you all, be good, remember who you are. :)
-eLDER Jacob SEVy

letter from Jacob 1.30.2012

Hey Family/Friends/Everyone that reads this,
So first off An Explination of the photos.
The first few are of the Koff Family (Some of them) And their house. RIght now the Branch is trying to get money from the government here, to help them build a safer house.
The next two is just some cool grafiti by our house :) And the last one is a sign that there is a little church close by.. the painting is kinda funny.


Okay so now the Letter Part.. :)
This week was a good one. We worked hard. And Time is flying. This week one of our investigators came to church. But he left after the first class. What happened in that Saturday, his son got in an accident on hit motorcylcle. He crashed with another Motorcycle. Then the owner of the other motorcycle came and stabbed him with a knife... So his son was in bad shape. And he left cause he was worried.
We are so luck to live in the states, where crap like that doesn`t happen so regularly. Our country is so much safer.
This week the Youth from our Branch, all six of them, went to the first EFY that has ever existed here in paraguay. there were a total of 426 youth that went. But seriously they came back as different kids. The church is definately led by Jesus Christ, and God. They know what all of us need. So kids, GO TO EFY! It is gonna be awesome! I am excited to be a councelor for efy after my mission.
Well I don`t have to much time. So I am gonna go now. I love you! Enjoy the PHotos!
-ELder SEEVy

Jacob is doing Wonderfully!

Well this week was awesome. We have been working really hard. And it is definately paying off. Me and Elder bowers are just destroying this area. Changes are coming up this week and i really hope i get to stay. But I have been here for four months already. The members are gonna miss me. I will miss most of them.

So this week we had interviews with President Callan. I don´t know why anyone would never want to do that. He really knows exactly what we need to know. It is really cool how 15 minutes with him can change a persons entire attitude. It definately changed mine.

Well I can´t believe how fast time is just flying. In like 3 or 4 days or something I will have 6 Months! My mission is gonna go way to fast! Just keep praying for all our investigators. Your prayers are already paying off! We are seeing so many miracles! There are definately Angels administering to us. Guiding us to the people that are ready and eager to recieve the gospel.

We have had some crazy things happening. Mostly good crazy. But I definately have a testimony. So that´s good. :) I had an expirience that was kinda scary. I won´t go into details or even tell the story. But If EVER I doubted the existence of the Devil, or his Spirits, I don´t anymore. Just like Elder said in the Priesthood session of conference we are in a war of good and evil. Between the latter day Saints, and Satan, who wants so desperately to destroy people. It is so important to pray, and read the Scriptures. And keep the spirit with us. Because if we let our guard down. He will get us.

Well I have to write President for this week. I love you all! Be safe! Pray for me! I need it! :)
¡¡Les Quiero!! Seguir al Profeta! Recuerdan que la Iglesia es Verdadera! Y siempre Haz lo Justo!

Jacob's letter 10/3/2011

This week was definately full of lots of cool expiriences. Mostly the weekend. So Saturday Morning was Elder Bowers birthday, so Friday, we walked forever trying to find an ATM so we could get some money to buy stuff for his birthday, after we got money we went to the SuperSeis Grocery store, and got some food stuff. We left there with bags full of yummy food. :) I even had the top of a pineapple poking out the top of my backpack. We had a ruff start at the beggining of the month, so we were short on moneys. So we had to get some out. We were eating rice and milk for breakfast. (Which isn´t bad if the kids are ever complaining about food... mom and Carol.) So saturday we woke up and Elder Bowers made some awesome peach cobbler for his birthday cake. So we sung happy birthday and then we ate some delicious cobbler! After that we went to the house of some inactive members with the intention of helping them paint their fence. While we were walking the sky turned grey, and by the time we got to there house it was raining a ton. So we waited a little, and then decided we were gonna just run home. Probably about 3/4 of a mil. ish. We were completely soaked within like 5 minutes of the walk. So like two mature missionaries we started jumping in puddles and enjoying ourselves. Part of our Journey included a Dirt soccer field. That was completely muddy. So we took off running hoping to slide. I just got really muddy, and Elder Bowers just about ate it. Then after we did that for a couple minutes were heard a series of whistling shouting and clapping from th distance. There were about twenty construction workers who had been watching us the whole time, from the shelter of their half way constructed wall-less building... It was pretty funny. :)

Then we went home and got ready for conference. The whole time hoping the rain would stop. It didn´t it just kept pooring and pooring. A lot of water... I used to have doubts about the truthfulness of the Noahs ark story. But if the whole world was raining like paraguay, the world would have flooded in about 5 days. So we strapped on our raincoats and backpacks and set out on our "15 minute journey"... We literally encountered rivers of water that came up to our knees. So carefully trying to avoid all of the water we worked our way through water.... hehe it took about 30 minutes to get to a bus stop. And when we finally got there we waited about 20 more minutes for the Collectivo (bus). When that finally came we got on it and we road through some more rivers, and about 15 minutes or so later thinking we were lost, got off of the collectivo. We Really had no Idea where we were. And then we just asked someone where the "Capilla Mormón" was and luckily for us we were about 2 blocks away. So we crossed the road in about calf high water, walked to bocks and encountered some more rivers. We walked across the water and finally after about an hour and a half found ourself in the chapel. We were really wet.

Then we got to listen to conference. 10 hours of learning from Apostles and Prophets and other inspired men. What more could a missionary ask for? Conference went by way to fast!! In between sessions we ate and contacted people in the street. It was cool. We meet lots of really interesting people. Sunday we traveled back to our area to try and bring some investigators to conference. But Satan is alway´s working against us. None of them could come. So we waited for the collectivo and lucklily made it back to the church by th middle of Elder Oaks Talk. That was definately a Powerful Conference.

Well I love you all! Be good!

--Elder Jacob "Water Walker" Sevy

26 September 2011. Another Lovely letter

Hola familia! ¿Cómo estan?

Esta semana fue.. buenísimo. Yo y mí compañero, estamos mejorando como misioneros cada día. Gracias por sus oraciones.

Haha okay.. So me and Elder Bowers are good. We have been working really hard this week. We had like 31 lessons or something. And we found a couple really cool people this week! It´s a good time to be a missionary. So many people ready to recieve the gospel!

So this week I have a bunch of funny stories. I am getting better at writing them all down so I can remember them by monday. So here goes.

So in our area every day at 5:00 there is a group of cows that comes to get there food. They eat right in the middle of the street too. It´s pretty cool to watch. They have this one GIGANTIC Brahma bull. He is probably the coolest cow I have ever seen. I kinda wanna pet him.

We also found a giant pig. There are a couple pictures of him attached. We were walking home from a service project and he was so big we had to ask if we could take some pictures with it.


We also made the best pizza ever. Crust and all. We cooked some delicious sausages and put them on it.. I took a picture of that too.. hehehe


Well right now we have one family that is progressing. They didn´t come to Church but they are really open to listening. And they invited us to come eat with them one day. They are called the Family Quiñones.

Right now the difficulty we are having is getting the members to help. We have a ton of inactive members in our area and so far we have reactivated Two. So we are definately going to have to work harder with that. The Problem is the lack of fellowshipping. The Members here don´t take the time to fellowship. But I know that if the ward would to their home teaching and visiting teaching we would have 400 members in church instead of 60. That is my goal.

Well I have nothing more to say right now... Be good everyone! Have fun! And yes..
Love, Elder Sevy

19 September 2011. Jacob's letter

I love it when the weeks go fast. It means we worked hard. This week was good we taught a lot of lessons. Me and Elder Bowers are proud to say that we had better numbers than all the zone leaders in our mission. Just to brag a little. We are working hard. Walking a ton. Iamcompletely desensitized by walking. It doesn´t even phase me. So that´s a plus. I´m pretty sure Ilost about 50 pounds this week just from walking. And Eating Noodles and rice everyday. But that´s not so bad. My Companion makes some mean Fideos. :)

Well Right now we have one family I'm particularly excited about. The Familia Quiñones. They are pretty cool. The dad is way chill. He came to church this sunday and the only problem he had is that we didn´t talk about the virgin Mary in Sacrament Meating. I don´t know what the Paraguayos problems are. They are all obsessed with saints and virgins. They are definately worshiping Idols. It´s kinda interesting to see how the same commandments are being broken in this day and age. Just like they were in the bible and the Book of Mormon.

So this week we have been finding a ton of people that are inactive. A lot of them were offended by other bishops a long time ago. And didn´t even know that there is a knew bishop. So we are trying to focus on re-activation. So pray that their hearts will be opened to the Spirit. :)

The last two weeks we have had a Family Home evening the family Arguello. They are cool. We did an activity about the Attributes of Christ and then we played that game with the flower and acoin and a butter knife. Do you know what that is? hehe. It was fun.

Well I don´t have very much news this week. We are working a lot. And Being guided to the people that the Lord has Prepared. But remember to pray for the Paraguayos. They need it.

ELder Jacob Sevy

An update 9/11/2011

So Last week I ran out of time. It was crazy how fast I ran out of time. So this week I decided to write this email very first. Okay so here goes.

This week we had changes. What ended up happening is that the Libertad area got split in half. So me and Elder Davis both got new companions. My companions name is Elder Bowers. He is from Wyoming. He is cool. Super patient. The begining of this week was kindof stressful. We had to find a new pension and when we started out all we had were beds. It is kinda difficult to study without beds. We also didn´t have a fridge so we ate a lot of bread and bananas. Yum. But we have pretty much everything now. No worries.

So the area got split and I was the one that was supposed to know the area. Well it just so happens that I had only been to this new area a total of like two times in the whole previous twelve weeks. So we did a lot of exploring. We found a whole bunch of inactive members that we are going to be working with. And a whole buch of new investigators. We definately saw a bunch of miracles this week. Just a testimony builder to know that we were blessed for being diligent.

I will share two stories that I thought were really cool. The second day we were here we had been walking all day. And then this little old lady came up to us and shook our hands. We were both kind of confused but she told us to follow her and so we did. We later found out that she was the mother of a family that are members. But they haven´t gone to church for a little more than a year.

The other cool story is that same night, we were buying some empanadas from a street vendor (The best empanada I have ever consumed) and we heard someone behind us say "Elders I have a question" We were a little bit shocked that someone knew us. But It was this middle aged Argentinian woman with a REALLY thick accent. We then found out that she was a Member that had recently moved into our area and didn´t know where the Chapel was. So we found out where she lives and we are gonna go visit her tonight.

Those are just a couple of the coolest Expiriences and Miracles I saw this week. Just proof to me that when we are Diligent and Obedient, we recieve blessings, and we also get to bless the lives of some of Gods other Children too. Super COOL!!!!

Well upon request, Here is our daily routine... :)

6:30 - we wake up and excersize.
7:00 - shower and prepare for the day
8:00 - Personal Study
9:00 - Companion Study
10:00- Language study
11:00 - Leave house and work
1:00 - Come home and eat lunch
2:00 - Return to the Vinyard of the lord
9:30 - Return to our house and plan
10:30 - Lights out.

That´s pretty much all. It´s alway´s good to work. We walk a lot. Probably an easy 5 or 6 miles a day. Sometimes more.

Well I love everyone. Thanks for your support and everything. Your all the Best. Especially you. Yes you. :) hehe

-Elder Jacob A. Sevy