Dear family and friends,

  Well it sure has been a crazy year, I remember this time last year I hadn't even received my call yet! So many things have happened from getting my call to the long six month wait, to actually stepping off the plane in Arequipa Peru!! Now I am almost 7 months in to my mission and speak Spanish sometimes. I have really gained such a greater love, knowledge, and testimony for the gospel!! 

 Back two weeks ago was Christmas, it was a wonderful day to get to talk to my family. I learned it really doesn't matter where you are, there is still a spirit in the air of Christmas! Christmas in Peru is a little bit different. We celebrate it on Christmas Eve, which is called Buena Noche here. That is when they do all of the celebration. Gift giving, family time, whatever is all the night before Christmas...truthfully they don't do anything on Christmas day. Some of the traditions that they have here that are unique is a little bit before midnight they drink hot chocolate and eat paneton, which is fruitcake...don't worry though it is much  better here than in the states! And at midnight the fireworks go off...and well we are not in Utah anymore!! Just about a billion huge fireworks go off everywhere, in every direction, by your house, your new car...you yourself!! Everywhere...and even though my companion and I were scared and shielding ourselves most of the time, we had a lot of fun and a very different but memorable Christmas! On Christmas day after we got to talk to our families, we went to sing in the Plaza De Armas with most of the missionaries in Arequipa. That was really a beautiful thing, the spirit was so strong there. I had a moment while singing and looking around thinking how beautiful it is that all of these people my friends, in the Mission Peru Arequipa. Come from all over the world, literally. We all have different trials different views, different purposes, but in the end we are all here doing what we know is right and united in our faith!! After all of that life went back to  preaching the gospel and was good!! New Year’s came and the fireworks where even bigger and louder I didn’t even know that was possible!! 

 It is crazy to me, this is truly the year of my mission and I am so excited to be here and learn more and grow! I am very grateful for all of the support and love that I have seen. I have truly seen so many blessings and miracles while being here in the wonderful place of Peru!! Thank you for all of your love, and prayers! I am so blessed and doing well, thanks for everything and have a fabulous first month of 2014!!

  Con mucho amor, 

            Hermana Jacobson

Dear friends and family,

 Feliz Navidad!!! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!! This has been a very fun and different week. This Tuesday we had a Christmas party with the mission that was a lot of fun!! We did a really fun skit and had some good Christmas thoughts as well as great food!!! Not going to lie it was nice to eat some good (normal) Christmas food! It was a fun little party!

  We have been working a lot with three really good investigators. Hermana Marylyn, she is the Mom of Laskmy (our last baptism.) Hermano Jaime, he is a reference and a son of the Relief Society President in our ward. And Hermana Aissa, she is 12 years old, super receptive, and her Mom is Member but is inactive so we are going to work with her too. We have been working really hard with these three. We have seen a lot of miracles come our way. It is so cool to see the immense blessings that come when you work hard and truly strive for the spirit. So many people in our ward have been working with us and really helping us out. We are really excited and hoping I will stay here for another transfer...so that we can see all of the results in January!! We have a good feeling and are really working hard and praying to have a good start to the New Year next month!! 

 It is always hard to have the first Christmas without the fam..and being away from home, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I feel super blessed to get to be in the Area I am in, and with my wonderful companion who is truly one of my best friends! We have had a lot of adventures here and I am so happy and blessed to get to live in this wonderful place of Arequipa Peru while serving the Lord. 

  In this Christmas season I just hope that everyone remembers the true meaning of it! Ha-ha I know that is the missionary answer, but being here away from home and everything I have come to truly learn the amazing blessings of the gospel. Not only are we so blessed to get to learn and grow, and know the fullness of truth. But, we are also blessed with the opportunity to know and feel the spirit. I hope that by the end on my mission I will know and understand a lot of things! But one thing I do know is that I have really come to know and recognize the spirit and the peace that it brings. There is a true beauty in contentness. We should always be trying to better ourselves, so that we one day can be worthy to join the Lord. But my simple thought this letter   is to express my knowledge and testimony on the many blessings the gospel can bring us. One of them is the blessing of contentness , and being happy and well, where ever we may be, and in whatever circumstance. Remember that through the gospel, obedience, and faith we can always have a feeling of peace and contentness in us. 

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year! I love you and miss you all, but I am truly blessed to be here serving the Lord in the wonderful place at this great time. I am very grateful for the wonderful friends and family I having supporting me at home. Thank you so much for all of your love, prayers and support. Remember God lives and loves and guides. We are never alone, and we never have to be. I love you all!! With all of my love, Hermana Jacobson

 

 

I am still in Graficos which I am super happy about, because my Spanish is picking up and I am actually starting to get to know people here. I know the area, I like where we live. We live with our pensiontista so that makes life a lot easier too! Plus Christmas is this transfer and the rain is going to start woohooo I am super excited!! But my companion did get transferred. We had a good time and she is a super super good friend of mine, there were some tears, but at the same time we both felt like it was just time. We had three transfers together...but my new companion is Hermana Weller....yup that is right another North American!! Ha-ha honestly I have a good feeling about it and I am excited, especially for Christmas...I have not met her yet as she is coming from another area so I won’t see her till the afternoon, but I am excited to get to know her and I think it will be good. I also feel better about my Spanish!! Most people don’t get to be with other North Americans so I feel that that means my Spanish is doing pretty well so wohhhoo! There is a photo of the Hermana’s that were in my zone, one is going home this transfer, my companion, and Hermana Romney. They closed one of the areas so we are going to be the only Hermana’s in our zone. Hey! Check out our shirts!! 

I am still in Graficos  my companion is still with me we are both super happy about it. I also finished my training! So that is pretty cool. This week was a lot of fun we had a lot of meetings and activities they all went really well we were super busy this week. One of our activities was the service activity. We helped a member clean her house...there are no words other than hoarders times ten...yeah that is about it. But don’t worry dad I worked hard and was with all the Elders. I sent Doug a photo of my feet keep in mind I had socks and shoes on...just to get an idea of how messy it was.

 We have been working with two awesome investigators and have been teaching them almost every day! It has been a really awesome and spiritual experience for me because I have been understand a ton more and I speak a lot not just testify but actually teach the points!! We have two baptisms one this week and the other the next week! We are super excited and they are really amazing and receptive people please pray for them that everything will work out!!!!! Their names are Lydia and Thomas.

We received your package it   made my companions life I don’t think it really mattered what was inside she loved it and really anything from the states she can put in her memory journal. She loved it because we love getting pens and pencils we can use them and really anything is great. It was great but it is true Latinos never get letter or packages. So it was an awesome surprise!

Well as always it is good to hear from you I love you all so much. Send me lots of fall and Halloween pictures, be happy and safe. I love you all like crazy. I hope you have a great week. Keep me updated stay SAFE and know that I love you all pray for you all and think of you all very often!!

With all of my love Hermana Megan Lee Jacobson

HI family. I have a whole bunch of pictures I want to send you but my computer is slow. Like I said I will read your emails after so I am sorry if I miss anything important. Thank you for your letters I got a whole bunch this week including your package with the poster of pictures!! Thank you I love them all so much!!  Anyway I love you all so much and I hope I will be able to upload some photos! I have some with alpacas and llamas!!! Woohooo. I didn’t pet them though because they spit. but yeah last p day we visited the park in our area with alpacas and then we went shopping it was fun. Well I am doing well, this week we have 19 new missionaries coming in and only four are going home so I have no idea how they are going to do that. It’s been a good week. We have our second baptism this week, I am really excited for that it’s an awesome feeling knowing you helped someone get to baptisms. We had a few people change in our area, but I am still with my trainer hna robles which I am happy about. I still feel like my Spanish is way behind but I am trying to stay positive and work hard on that!! This week we have been working with a young man who is 13 his name is Jorge, his father is actually a returned missionary and his sister is a recent convert but
they aren’t very active, we taught him a lesson and the spirit was so strong I actually spoke a lot more than I usually do and said things that I wanted to not only just what I had planned or could think of, it was so great and sooooo strong, and at the end we said so will you prepare to be baptized, there was a moment of silence, the spirit was so strong, he looked at us smiled and said firmly NO! It was a really disappointing moment, even though I know everyone has their agency and not everyone is going to accept I thought that the spirit might change his heart. His dad was even there encouraging him too. It was sad we are still working with him, so hopefully one day. I understand where he is coming form he probably doesn’t see the point in getting baptized because his dad and sister are but don’t go to church so there isn’t really a point to it is how he feels. So we need to work with them and get them to be more active. We did have his sister come to church with us this week so that is a good start!! Anyway I am really excited for our baptism this week, and really really really happy I didn’t change companions my companion is the Maximo she knows a lot about everything and she helps me a ton when I get down on myself about Spanish or something she is so encouraging and we have a lot of fun together>!! Anyway I love you and I love the letters and pictures and packages thank you so much have a fabulous week I hope to hear from you soon

  I love you all with much love Megan

 

July 31, 2013

Dear Brother and Sister Jacobson,

We are pleased to inform you that your daughter, Hermana Jacobson, has arrived safely here in the mission. The enclosed picture was taken at the mission home the day she arrived.

Please accept our appreciation for raising such a fine daughter with good qualities and talents that will bless the people of Peru. My wife and I feel she will be a dedicated and hard working missionary. We are committed to her health and well-being, and consider it an honor and privilege to serve with her here in Peru.

As president of the mission, I am happy to answer your questions. To send regular mail and packages please use the following address:

o   Hermana Jacobson, Megan

o   Peru Arequipa, Mission

o   Casilla 1884

o   Arequipa, Perú

We hope that you will write to your daughter as often as possible, only the positive things of the family so she does not lose sight of the purpose of her mission. She should write home once a week and we hope you will reply to her letters.

We appreciate your dedication in preparing your daughter for her mission. We pray that you will continue to enjoy the Lord´s choicest blessings.

Sincerely,

Richard Zobrist

President,

Peru Arequipa Mission

Hi family! I am finally away in Arequipa!! It is very different here that is for sure. To respond to you emails, mom yes it’s very different here. And Mark Zobrist is my MP Brother. It was about an hour and a half flight here and it was really an interesting day. Thanks for sending snail mail. It is nice to get any form of mail, but snail mail is nice because you can read it over and over again, and it is hard to focus and respond to everything here during email time especially since we also need to write our president. Well when I arrived here i was relived it is more mountainy...well it looks like mountains which are nice they are actually all volcanoes. Thanks for all of the individual emails please keep doing it it is nice to hear form all of you each but for me it is easier to write you all back in one email.  I am not completely sure of the mail system here yet but my impression is that we have to pay seven soles for each letter we send and don’t use stamps just to let you know that is kind of a lot for a letter each week, so my goal is to still write every week but they probably won’t send them each week, I will send them together. I hope everything is well, I want you to know I am safe, and even though this is really crazy and hard I am happy. I have been very blessed. My water bottle is my life because I can’t drink from any other place, but the food is good and I am doing well. If I have time I will try to send you pictures. Okay so here is a summary of my life ahora...My companion is from Los Angelo’s Chile, the very southern part of Chile. She is probably like 4’8” she is super short and is very kind and patient...which is good because I struggle with Spanish a lot. She is 21 and has been here for almost 5 months. I really like her and am grateful for her. she does speak a little English not much at all because she’s never been outside of Chile or Peru but enough to where if I need help she can help me. My area is called Graphics it is immediately in the city, the mission house is in our area. Its a good area to start. There are some areas in our mission that are 6 hours away...oh and here in Peru there are two indigenous languages called Quecha and Aymara...yeah I am scared to find people that speak it...it sounds like ancient Inca language literally...we have a few book of Mormons in quecha its loco....googl it like really it’s crazy and nothing like Espanola. So I have been thinking of how to describe where I live and I can’t think of a good way...just imagine living in a 3 world country and you are probably thinking correctly..ha-ha although where I live is a lot nicer than some of the houses ‘I’ve been in. Wow some of the most humble of homes its incredible I love it. There was a family we taught and there whole entire house was smaller than mom and dad’s room. It’s insane and they are literally shacks. Also Arequipa is way different than lima I like it a lot more...although I hadn’t been called grenga until I got here, sometimes I forget  I am white because I am used to seeing only cafe people but I get reminded often when we are contacting and about 20 people slow down and look and me weird or yell grenga grenga which is basically white person its interesting but it is fun. I bore my testimony in sacrament thought!! My ward is nice. Wow one day you will have to visit here it’s crazy and very poor. My Spanish is getting better than what it used to be. I can actually understand and read a lot but I can’t speak very much at all but poco y poco. I love you all so much I hope you are doing well. My p days are always on Mondays. Every day is an adventure here that is for sure. But I am safe happy and healthy. I love you and pray for you more than you know. Please send pictures .oh and if you can hand sanitizer I’m going through them quickly because  the water here will make me sick so I use it every time I need to wash my hands. I love you so much. Have a fabulous week!!