Hello everyone,

  So Mom received a phone call, so I will talk more about that haha.

This week has been quite a surprise.  We set Dec 15th for Gracie, 65, to be baptized.  So last tuesday we had to meet with them to sort out everything needed for the baptism: meaning teaching more commandments (which was pretty funny to teach tithing btw, we asked her if she would live the law of tithing and she looked at us like we were crazy and said of course!)  the interview for baptism, and how the baptism will be performed.  It seemed that we had alot of things to do last tuesday, and on top of all that we wanted to set a date for her husband Walter, 58.  He has been coming to church and has been motivating Gracie to investigate this church, we wanted him to prepare for Dec 29th so he has time to give up smoking.  He then said he wanted to be baptized the same day as Gracie and would give up smoking then and there, he had alot of faith and would give up anything to be closer to his wife.  So both of them were baptized last saturday and confirmed yesterday.  Walter is this big guy and they wanted me to baptize him.  Gracie wanted Elder Peters to baptized her.  I'll share a picture.  The baptism was such a spiritual experience, alot of people showed up including Gracie's older sister Willie Mae, who has been a member for I think 20 years, and her good friend Edna Nelson.  Gracie wanted Willie Mae to speak at her baptism, which was very powerful.  Sister Edna Nelson wanted to get my mother's number and Elder Peters' Mom's number to thank them.  So I think thats where the phone call came from.  They wanted me to keep in touch when I'm done with my 2 years, I think I gave my home address.

  Last tuesday Elder Peters and I moved into another apartment which is on the other side of Tuscaloosa.  Its a pretty convienent spot for missionary work, pretty close to members.  Plus it is much better the old one. (it has a much larger water heater).  This is preparation for the many sister missionaries that we will receive over the next year.  (we will have by the end of next summer 138 sister missionaries, and 112 Elders).

  If you want to see more about whats going on in this mission, I would invite you to check out our blog:  alabamamissionupdate.blogspot.com

I must say there are many people in the christmas spirit, there's so many houses with decorations.

Take care yall,

peace love and happiness,

Jacob

  Its very nice to hear from what everybody has said.

Its cool to see jeremy's photos. For a second I forgot what he looks like... nah just joke.  Thats a pretty cool paisley tie though.  The other missionaries sitting next to me was looking and said whos that guy and why is he wearing your nametag?  haha

I feel like I should be putting up pictures up as well.  We had a baptism last saturday, and we did take a picture. So I got to find where that picture is at.  Hopefully I will attach it to this email.

Next saturday there is going to be another baptism, which I am looking forward to. Elder Peters and I began teaching her.  We found out that she has quite a religious background: Baptist, Jehovah's witness, and probably another one.  The last church she went to was Jehovah's witness, which would be a huge change in conversion becoming LDS.  But she hasn't gone to any church in like over 20 years or so.  She had bad experiences with those churches.  The way we found her was that she was a referral, someone told us to contact her.  She is really nice, and likes to talk about anything, its never a dull moment with her and her husband.  Her sister is a lds member and she has helped alot with talking to her.   She is getting baptized this saturday. Her husband said he wants to eventually get baptized, he just needs to give up smoking.  Their family is coming over for the baptism.

  At church there was a good christmas program.  Its a little early since many students will be going home for the holidays, so it was done last sunday so they can be there.  It was a good turn out.

Well take care everybody,

Jacob

   Yeah I am here in Tuscaloosa, AL. Its weird, Elder Peters just got a referral from his family, so its kind of funny how people back home are giving referrals as well. We would love to meet them.

So this is what happened: we were biking home from a far away place towards home. Elder Peters is a crazy fast biker. and so we went across this busy intersection, and the way the curb is formed you would have to bike in a S line. At fast speed it didnt occur to me that it would be difficult. (and since its in winter season there were leaves on the ground which made it slippery.) So for the most part I accomplished the first part of the S, but my bike swerved and my pedal hit the ground, the bike fell and I flew forward. My right hand got a cut, left thigh a scrape, and I could barely move my left arm. (there is this pretty cool straight white line on the corner of the ground in front of Checkers, a burger place). I stood up and became instantly light headed, so I had to sit down/lay down. I wasnt going to faint but it seemed like I was going there if I stood up imediately again. After a while I was able to get up and walk home. Thats how the accident happened, on Thursday.

  The next day I called the nurse specialist (who is awesome btw), told her what happened and what I can do with my arm. We then found a nearby hospital to see if anything is broken. It was a long wait there. I had a hard time trying to figure out my insurance info, and I knew Dad knows it but I cant just call home to ask for it. So Sister May (nurse specialist) said use their phone to call home to get it, so thats where that call came from. Nothing is broken. My left elbow is just sprained. Which is much better now, I can fully extend it and eat with it now. (It was hard for the last couple days since I'm lefthanded.)

   I was told to call president Holzapfel about how I am doing, so I did. He asked "would a call to your mom help?" I thought for a second and said a call to my mom would always help, but I dont think it is needed and I can wait for emailing and Christmas. He then said over the years of being a mission president I have found out that whenever some injury happens to a missionary, their parents would expect the worst. Just call your mom and say you're doing fine, had an accident, but will be fine in a couple days, keep it as short as you can. I thought, woah ok haha. So it was nice to hear mom and dad on the phone call.

I haven't figured out the time the skype call will be yet. but I'll let you know.

  President Holzapfel emailed us some pretty good insight from a bag of apples. Sister Holzapfel was making an apple cake for a senior couple that will be returning. The bag, in whose apples they used for baking, said at the bottom, "Meets or Exceeds US Extra Fancy Standards." Washington apples, I hear, are among the best apples grown in the world. The farmer has deemed them as "extra fancy" for they not only have met the standards, or guidlines for being good apples, but have exceeded them. President went on to say how this applies to missionaries. Some questions he asked said:

   "Would your investigators say you meet the missionary guidelines?

Would Church members say you meet these guidelines?

Would local Priesthood leaders say you meet them?

More importantly, would the Lord say you meet the guidelines He established for His missionaries?

And one more question, would any of them say you "exceeded" the guidelines?"

    This principle used for missionaries can be taken to life challenges. For it was told that a mission, is only life, in miniatures.

"It would be wonderful if your spouse said you not only met righteous marriage guidelines for a spouse, but exceed them. It would be wonderful if your children and grandchildren said you not only met, but exceeded guidelines for good parents and grandparents.

What about your employment? Wouldn't it be great if your employer always felt you not only met, but exceeded guidelines for your employment? Would you get a raise or promotion? Would you keep your job when others were let go during a downturn in the economy?

I promise you will be blessed and find more happiness when you not only meet guidelines in your life, but exceed them"

   I thought it was good insight from president Holzapfel, so I really just copied and pasted what he said. I see it to be true.

Tis the season to be jolly,

Jacob

  Alot has happened this weekend. I dont know where to start.
Most of the missionaries in Tuscaloosa are staying in Tuscaloosa.  We just needed a new missionary since Elder Lacour is gone.  So now I am with Elder Peters, (a utah mormon), which a really nice change, he following the rules.  Elder Osiemo is with Elder Gale.  Which is very interesting to me because Elder Gale was somebody that was with me in the MTC.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody. For us, we stayed at members home. Our choices were either the Mays, or the Blowers. One set of missionaries would go to one.  Bro. Mays said who likes Pumpkin pie?  Nobody had a preference so I said I do.  He then said that I am going to the Blowers ...lol  I found out they don't really like pumpking pie or any fruit pie. So it worked out, I didn't care.  With the Blowers we had a feast:  Turkey (of course), mashed potatoes, homemade macaroni and cheese, bread rolls, develed eggs, some kind of marshmellow salad (it was good), and ...green bean casserole.  It actually took me by surprise since I was talking about it earlier that day.  It felt like I was at home.   There were a bunch of pies as well (pumpkin, apple, chocolate, peanut butter and chocolate).  The other Elders appeared to have a good time too, they said they saw the table and it was filled with pies, bro Mays said we take out dessert pretty seriously lol.  Thanksgiving was great, we played a game that was i think called retumpki which is kind of like phase 10, and we also played the life inspiring game of life.
  Its kind of hard to do missionary work during the holidays because we know that everybody is either away from town, or coming in from somewhere to visit family.  I wouldn't want to bother them so we really would just bike down some streets and just talk to people that are not at home.  It gets actually pretty effective because we did find some people that would be interested. It seems more appropriate then just knocking on their front door.
  We met someone a while ago through tracting.  Her name is Shirley.  We offered a blessing and asked what we could bless her for.  She said she wanted to quit smoking and that she had back pains.  She is one that has a lot of faith, because she refuses any medication and just relies upon God's help.  So she appreciated the blessing very much.  We go to her place occasionally to visit her.  She is such a sweet lady.  We have to talk to her at the doorstep since an other man is usually somewhere out.  The next time we talked to her was about the restoration.  For the most part she knows what we shared, until we talk about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She was fascinated about it. We gave her a restoration pamphlet and a copy of the book of mormon.  The next time we met, she said she was amazed at how much of this has been hidden from the world.  Shes been comparing the Book with the Bible using the footnotes.  Its just a challenge to get her to church.  Her sister takes her to a church called Double Portion.  (Im amazed at how many churches there are here in the south.) Which meets at the same time as ours.  So we just got to talk to her sister and hope that she is receptive to our message.  We got her in our prayers.
  There are a bunch of other people we are visiting that just have a problem getting to church.  Some just have a challenge getting up on time.
I do feel that the more I read the scripture through the lens of a missionary, I am more capable of sharing a story that would apply to the individual.  Like one time I shared the story of Nathanael in John 1 to someone, and it was just off the top of my head, and Elder Peters backed me up since he read that story that very day.  The story basically explains that Philip received an assignment to invite Nathanael to see Jesus.  Sort of a missionary experience where he simply says "come and see"
Well thank you all for all your support, hope you guys are experiencing you weeks better than ever.  I received some letters from pleasant hill, thanks to the Phillips.
"take care now y'all"
Jacob

Hello!
  This week I really enjoyed being with the other missionaries. Most of these 2 months we have been working with college students, and I found out that its good to teach them, but most people would not really act on the message we share.  This past week we met with people that have their own place, and are actually looking for a change in their lives.  So I think this week was really productive.
 Thanksgiving is coming up, we will be with some members eating.
Transfers are this wednesday, I will be staying here in Tuscaloosa.
Well, much love
Jacob

  hows it going yall?  (I say that on purpose, I dont really have the southern accent)  Most of the missionaries here have been here for a while and they don't have an accent either.  Some do though, but I think it is because they want to.
  Last week we had zone conference.  All the missionaries in the Bessemer zone met in the Bessemer building.  One thing I noticed was that these missionaries on average are very tall.  The average height is like 6'.  I'm surrounded by towers.  We could just start a basketball team and start dominating.  Anyway, we learned a lot from this meeting, the mission president spoke to us - he is very bold and loud, an excellent speaker for an area like this.  The main thing that they trained us about was to give a blessing to the people that we approach: members, investigators that we have been teaching, or simple strangers when we meet them at their door step.  It gets pretty awkward when we offer a blessing to random strangers.  It is a interesting tool to try out though, it brings out the two extremes: "a blessing? sure! come on in" or "what did you say? your a cult get out of here!"  nah we dont get much of the latter because people here are nice.  We normally just get a "no thanks" type response.  Or they don't really acknowledge that we are there to give a blessing, but they see our shirt, tie, and name tag and think that we are part of another religion, therefore we can't give a blessing.
  Well, it sometimes works.  we have been seeing this lady name Lora.  I think i mentioned her before, she lives in a ghetto apartment surrounded by, to put it blunt, 'evil people'.  We met here, and we always ask her how she is doing.  She always responds: not good.  And she has reasons.  I wont go into details, but she has been having severe problems regarding her health, her family, and her living situation.  We didnt know how to respond.  Elder Lacour said that he will share a scripture and that I will leave a blessing.  This happened yesterday, I don't even remember the scripture he shared.  I asked her if she believes that we have the priesthood authority. she said of course.  So I acted by the priesthood authority to leave a blessing.  I blessed her health, her family, her living situation, and that she will be able to bear the struggles that she is going through.  I also mentioned that Christ peace will enter this place.
  In the zone training when they taught us to give blessings, they shared the story when Jesus usually greeted people, he said "shallom" which by interpretation means "peace, be unto you".
As I closed the blessing, she burst into tears.  This person, like most of us, cant control what happens next week.  There wasn't much we could do to help, but we knew God could.  As we departed she said, I feel much better.
It was a good feeling.
  I must be honest, I have grown to hate my companion. :)  Much of the decisions he makes I don't agree with.  The fact that he is leaving this wednesday brings joy to me lol.  He's from LA, CA area about to go to college in utah.  He talks about football and politics alot. He is very conservative.  Which I guess helps in this area because football and politics are huge topics here.  But I tend to forget that I am a missionary.
Argh, im just mad mainly because of what happened yesterday.  After that big spiritual moment, we continued to tract university village.  We decided to go see someone we have been teaching.  His roomate showed up and basically said i dont want to be a jerk but we're not interested go away.  It made me mad cuz his roomate kicked us out.  I was a little flustered that night, and still am a little.
 This week we will try to start focusing on getting members to teach with us.  After wednesday, I will be in a trio until transfers next week.  I am excited about that, I ll be with Elders Osiemo and Peters.  3 companions in one transfer.
  We got a referral.  She came to stake conference with us.  Gracie and Walter.  Walter encouraged her to check out this church, Gracie's sister is a member and has been studying the scriptures with her.  They are excited for us to teach them.
  On a spiritual note, one of the speakers at stake conference was President Archibald, who is an institute teacher.  One of the things he said was that we need to sit up straight and square, like a fighter pilot about hit the eject button, because if we are a little off, the seat that is about to launch you at like 200 mph may break your back.  In comparison, he said we must be ready cuz you never know when you're thrown in a position where things are moving too fast to handle.  He related to how much progress this mission is building, especially with the age change. Next year, the number of missionaries are going to double.
Anyway, take care yall
Elder Miklich

  It didnt really rain much over here.  I actually havent seen any rain since I got here.  There were a lot of people out trick or treating near the nice looking apartments.  We didn't go tracting though, haha that would have been weird. 

  What we did was that on tuesday, the day before halloween there was a trunk or treat activity at the church building, so we went to that.  There was also a chili cook off that people would vote for who had the best chili.  Some of it was hot.  A lot of people dressed up in costumes.  The bishop had this awesome sherlock holmes outfit.  On halloween was another trunk or treat activity but it was for another ward.  We went to both activities.  We got a lot of candy.  We actually couldn't get much missionary work done, frankly I don't care.  Elder Lacour wanted to leave though, I don't think he likes halloween.  Oh well.

  Its interesting how the origin of halloween has changed so much from how the U.S. celebrates it.  Halloween came from the Celtic tradition, it use to be called "Sow'een" which meant "hallows eve" or all-saints day.  It was believed that the day started with night and ended with the day.  It was the day out of the year where spirits would come and visit us from the spirit world and also we could visit the spirit world.  In order to invite good spirits, we would decorate our house and guide the pathway with jack o lanterns.  Plus, in order to save us from harm, we would blend in with the dead by dressing up in costumes.  Of course that changed now since you see people dressing up as captain america, or alladin.  But that was the tradition.

  I find it interesting how in spanish it called el dia de los muertos.  Because that is basically what it is meant for.  Nov 1st is hallows day, the day to think about your dead loved ones, or the dead in general.  Since many people here treat halloween as a party day, we don't really have a chance to segue the discussion to missionary work for the dead.  We did have fun nonetheless.

  This past week, I'm sorry to say, it was a really bad day.  We couldn't really do much on Tuesday or Wednesday because of the holiday.  My companion was getting stressed out about getting his birth certificate/ driver's license/ whatever that was needed to be able to go home on time.  He leaves on Nov 21st.  Good thing was that he got that done, we had to go to the dmv a couple times.  Thurs we continued to try working on this apartment we visited for the past 2 weeks and still far from being done.  We parked our bikes and some worker, i'm guessing a janitor or something, came up to us and asked us what do we belong to? We told him the church that we represented, and he told us basically that that is soliciting in our book, we are going to have to ask you to leave.  Me and my companion were thinking "soliciting?"  Soliciting means you are standing around for the attempt to get gain, money, the act of selling something.  We aren't selling anything, if any thing, we are giving stuff away.  Out loud, since we didn't want to argue, we told him ok so we left.

  So we got kicked out of that apartment.  The next day, sort of the same thing happened.  We were visiting somebody near home in an apartment.  We parked our bikes, and someone comes up to us and says, "unless you guys are visiting someone you are going to have to leave."  We said we did, and that we understood.  Luckily we already visited everyone in that apartment.  We sort of go by a missionary rule: keep tracting until you get kicked out. haha  The person we were visiting is pretty promising though, he had a lot of questions and wants to go to church.

  So we got kicked out of an apartment twice in a row this week.  It was odd.

  One of our investigators that we were teaching all of a sudden dropped us.  She said she enjoyed our discussions, and the philosophies of the church, she feels like she became a better person, just an overall good feeling.  " But I need time right now, there is just some things I don't agree with."  We said alright, let us know if you want to talk again.  She knew that Joseph Smith existed, she wasn't sure if he was a prophet though.  We were bummed out.  We were so sure that she was going to be baptized.  She is from Columbia, I connected with her, haha. oh well.

  In 1 corinthians 14: 10 it says something like,  there are many, as it may, many voices in the world. and none of them is without significance.

Everybody has a decision, there opinion is worth something, especially when you share it with somebody.  The investigators that we see may benefit from what we say, but the answers that they will get for their questions may be more powerful if it came from somebody that they trust.

  Elder Lacour and I had a rough week last week.  But I am still smiling.  Its good to point out the low weeks so that you can point out the high weeks.

your good friend,

Elder Jacob Miklich