Sister Webster and I at this beautiful church/REALLY old cemetery. Right across the road from the birth place of John Bunyan.

This is Mavis and her family!

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Here is what I was thinking in this picture: AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH They even had hogwarts scarves there, so you can see that I got the Ravenclaw one. Represent.

This is the Jordans, my mission president and his wife. They are the greatest!

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My birthday treat, courtesy of Sister Webster (p.s. this is on the top level of a double decker bus, so that was pretty cool)

This is the family that fed us and made me a birthday cake on my birthday!

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I'm Old Now. April 29, 2013

Hey ya'll.

So I'm 20 now. Weird. As Anthony told me, I have successfully avoided being a teen mom, so I guess I feel pretty accomplished. Other than that I feel about the same. But my birthday was awesome! Sister Webster treated me like a princess all day haha and she bought me a Dr. Pepper! That's all I really wanted for my birthday, so it was a success. A family we had dinner with made me a cake, which was the sweetest thing ever. And then we set baptismal dates for them, which was the best present ever!

So you can send me snail mail directly to my flat, just ask my mom or sister for the address, because I don't really want to publish it on the internet. That might be dangerous haha.

We've had an excellent week! So as missionaries, every week we set like numerical goals for what we want to accomplish, and this past week we met all our goals and surpassed some of them! Which really just means we need to set higher goals, but it was still pretty successful.

The people of the Bedford ward are the bomb. So we were at the home of a member named Gladys from Ghana the other night, and her daughters were watching Disney Channel so I was talking to them about that and they told me their favorite show is Jessie, so they thought I was the coolest when I told them I've met Debby Ryan haha.

The youth here are great because they think my accent is cool. Sidenote: I hate my accent now that I'm surrounded by British accents. Like, I sound like an idiot. But the kids seem to think my accent and generally the fact that I'm from America is cool. So sometimes I'll have kids show me their American accents and that's always fun. Yesterday a girl in the ward was like, "Whads uuurrrrp" and I was like "Was that supposed to be American?" hahahaha It is funny. Guess you had to be there.

The work is moving on in Bedford. I'm finally getting the hang of things and remembering which direction is which. Without Sister Webster, I would spend 80% of my time just wondering where the heck I am and how to get to where I need to be.

This is the Lord's work. He is helping me so much! Actually He's doing most of the work for me. All I have to do is open my mouth, put one foot in front of the other, just focus on what He wants me to do, and I see success. I feel like I've been here forever just because of how much my testimony has grown in such a short time, but also it feels crazy to think that I've already been out on a mission for a month. Time is so weird.

Here's some advice: pray. Pray all. the. time. Completely put your trust in the Lord. There's no other way to go through life and have it mean something, than to completely rely on Him. He will make your life a million times better than you could yourself. Don't put off doing what you know you're supposed to do. Keep the commandments, they are literally only in place to help you be happy. God WANTS TO BLESS YOU. So stop being stubborn and let Him.

I love you all dearly. Keep on keepin on.

April 15, 2013 Letter

        Mom & Company,
                 Thanks for the card you sent me. I just received it today. So I guess now we know it takes 10 days to get your letters. I just found out I only get 5 minutes to email this week  and postage is free here, so I'm just writing this.
                 The MTC has been a great learning experience. I feel way more confident now about how to teach, but I'm still scared to death to go teach real people  I have learned a lot about the gospel - In 11 days I've taken 60 pages of note. But I've also learned a lot about myself.
                 There are 61 missionaries in the MTC class. 21 of those are not Americans. 21 of them are specifically from Utah. I absolutely love all the sisters, they are SO COOL. I'm sad a lot of them wont be in my mission.
                 Last Friday we went into Manchester to street contact for the first time. It's really hard! On the train back to Chorley I sat next to a blonde girl who looked about my age and of course started talking to her because that's my job. Anyway, she turned out to be way cool! Shes about to graduate university in Leeds, but she is from Chorley and was going home for the weekend. I shared the Restoration with her of course, but for most of the 50 minute train ride we just talked about everything. Her name is Holly. I really feel like I made an actual friend, we got along so well. So I gave her my full name and told her to add me on Facebook. So.. yay English friend!
               I'm scared but excited to get out in the field. This stuff is hard but I know the Lord will help me. Thanks for your prayers and messages. I'm doing good and trying my best. Hope everything is going well at home.

                                              Love,
                                                       Sister Jacobsmeyer

April 22, 2013- Greetings from the Shire

Bedfordshire that is! I am in the beautiful city of Bedford! And the surrounding towns and countryside. Wednesday we drove south to London, and I was flipping out when we drove into the city. So many cool things. Still haven't seen Big Ben though. One day haha.

So we got to the Hyde Park chapel, which is our mission home. President Jordan and his wife are really lovely people. We had a few trainings, then got our companions. I am blessed to be with Sister Webster from Gilbert, AZ (she knows Andrew Prince!). She's a sweetie and we are having a ton of fun together. We danced to EFY music for exercise this morning if that tells you anything haha. So on Wednesday we dragged all my luggage through the tube for like 3.5 hours to get to our flat. BUT on the way we were in Kings Cross station and we took a picture at Platform 9 3/4. LIFE MADE. I would love to upload the pic but the library computer I'm on is rubbish.

Anyway, our flat is really cute and homey. This area is really great, it is like a perfect blend of modern shops and things and old historic churches. And out in the country is even more beautiful. Everything here is just so pretty. I love the people here too. They are all very nice and polite, which makes the work a lot easier. Not really scared to walk up to people and just talk to them anymore.

I'm learning proper English pretty quickly. I still refuse to call the bathroom the toilet, that's weird to me. But people here say "lovely" a lot. And "I'm not bothered/can't be bothered" which I love. Catherine Tate taught me well.  I also love little British kids. Their accents are cute.

The work is good. My goal is to always have a smile on my face and my badge visible so that people can associate the two. We are one of the only biking areas in the mission, so I get to bike around a lot. I look like a goober but whatever.

Thanks in advance for birthday wishes and letters.
I love you all. The Lord loves you. Be safe and be good.

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Happy Birthday Mom!

I'm aware I look horrible in this picture. Shut up, it was a long time ago

I love you! Don't worry, I did this before I left, I'm not breaking any rules.

3 Important Announcements

1. By the time you read this, I WILL BE IN LONDON. Meaning, address change. Not that any of you wrote me anyway, but don't mail things to the MTC because I won't get them for anothe like 3 months.

2. Speaking of mail, my birthday is in 6 days. Mail takes about a week to get to me so.....take that as you will.

3. Look who I found on the recent baptisms board! (It's Zach Waite if you can't tell.)

 

April 15, 2013- Courage, for the Lord is on our side!

So I leave on Wednesday and won't get to talk then, so they are only giving me 5 minutes today to email. I am bummed about that! Nothing really has happened this week. I got your letter today Mom, thank you for that. And thanks a lot everyone else for NOT WRITING ME! . We went finding in Manchester on Friday and that was.....something. Very hard, but I made a friend (not just a contact, like a really good friend) on the train back to Chorley named Holly. I love you all, I pray for you, and I'm having a blast. Even though this is REALLY hard. It's the best. I really don't know what else to say. Oh yeah, finally got to watch Sunday afternoon general conference. Elder Holland is a boss. I'm excited and scared to finally get to London. I hope the fair was fun, I loved the pictures Jenni sent me. I won't get to email until next Monday, so talk to you then! I hate not being able to get immediate responses haha. Social media has ruined me.

Sister J

Pictures:

Me at the train platform in Manchester

My first Kinder Egg! (illegal candy in America)

Happy Birthday Garrett!

Love and miss you, dude! Welcome to adulthood, now go register to vote or buy some spray paint!

Picture Post!

The Map!

Sign talked about in conference

 My roommates and I in the classroom

 Temple sign

New Friends!

April 10, 2013

Hey Yall-

First I need to rebuke you all for not writing me on DearElder.com. Go and do that. My days are really sad when I don't get messages. Anway, England is great and has been very sunny this whole time. It looks a lot like the more rural areas of California, but colder. My flight was about as good as you can expect from a 12 hour flight. Got about 4 hours of sleep. I had a chance to share a passalong card with the lady who exchanged my money, so that was cool. The day we got here was very chill and they let us just relax and get situated most of the day. I'm in the Abinadi district of the Hinckley zone. We're the first district in this MTC to have more sisters than elders (6 to 4). President Edwards and his wife are super cool and like the sweetest people ever. We are fed really well here, and the chef can sing like an angel so time in the cafeteria is always fun.

I seriously love all the missionaries here. I already feel like all these sisters are my close friends. We have a lot of fun together. I'm seeing a lot of miracles, but probably one of my favorites is the fact that the ESL missionaries talk fluent English and don't even realize it. Some have never studied English before, but I can hold conversations with them no problem. It is seriously incredible. My teachers, Bro Rojas and Bro Loynes are really cool and keep the hours of sitting in desks fun. I can tell I'm comfortable with them by the fact that I can be extremely sarcastic with them and they do it right back haha. Wasn't conference amazing? I thought it was wonderful. I paid way more attention than I usually do and got SO MUCH out of it. I serioulsy cried when they released Sister Dalton. I love that woman so much. She is amazing. The announcement of the temples was realy special. One sister from Cedar City literally shouted for joy. (P.S, this should not come as a surprise, I have found a descendant of Dudley Leavitt. That sister haha) Another elder from Rio had a great reaction to that temple. Anyway, I am WAY over my limit for email, so I'll talk to you all later. WRITE ME ON DEARELDER.COM. Like, you will not bug me if you send me something every day. It's free.

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My cover of Come Thou Fount

Shameless plug of my music before I leave? Why not. This is also a reminder that I really miss recording. Anyway, it's a hymn so it fits the page, right?