Merry Christmas from Jake! Washington DC North Mission 2015

Jacob Kohler	Dec 7 (1 day ago)
Jacob Kohler Dec 7 (1 day ago) to me -Elder Jacob Reed Kohler

-Elder Jacob Reed Kohler

December 7, 2015

12-7-15

Want to start out by saying a happy late birthday to my dad from this last week! That man has taught me a lot throughout my life and I owe a lot to him! Thanks dad for all you do for me! I love you and I hope it was good! 

Well we started out the week with our temple trip so that was super cool! Definitely a good way to start off the week! I have come to love the temple so much from being here and I will definitely day to everyone GO TO THE TEMPLE!! Whether it in inside or just going to be outside on the temple grounds it is so great to be there and experience it!! The spirit is always so strong there! 

Then we have started this thing here called the Elder Ballard challenge, it's where we have to talk 10 people at least every day! So we have been knocking more doors and walking around talking to more people! It's been getting cold which sucks, but thanks to my new jacket (love you mom) I've been good! The other day we ran into a guy who spoke English and right away invited us in to warm up. We talked for a while and he had some pretty crazy stories! He was from Palestine  and so told us a lot of stories from the "motherland." But the cool thing was he told us about going to the garden of Gethsemane and the different places of Christ which was really cool to hear about! 

We also have started this thing which is super cool called "The Festival of Lights" which is awesome! It is pretty much a little version of the salt lake temple lights! And then they have a different concert every night! So we have already taken people to two of them and they've been great! We went with a family in a ward who are one of my favorites for sure! And then another with a less active who we've been working with for a while and he is super cool too! We saw an orchestra and a swing band and they were both super good! We're trying to get as many people out to them as we can and hopefully we will get some investigators out of it! 

Then we had our interviews with our president and they went well! He told me how Christmas will go and I'm pretty excited for it! Then he told my companion he is leaving the area which is crazy! I don't really know if I'm staying or leaving yet but I will have a new companion a week from this Wednesday! So I'm excited to see how it goes! I hope I stay cause we have stuff we are working on with less actives and our new investigator that my comp and I don't want to have some people who don't know our area to have to come in and figure it out! But it is all in the Lords hands so we will see how it goes! 

Then we finished it off with our Christmas zone activity today which wasn't too shabby! We had breakfast made for us which was great, a gingerbread house making contest which I ate more than I built, then we had a "snowball fight" with socks which wasn't bad either! (They were new socks luckily) then we just all hung out and played some sports which is always a good time! I got to play some soccer which always makes me happy! 

All together things have been going well and we are working hard! It has been tough getting to meet with our investigators lately which is hard. We are doing our best, but if everyone could pray for us to be able to meet with them that would be super helpful! 

I love this time of year and the opportunity to serve and share the Christmas spirit! To remember all Christ has done for us in his life! He gave his life so we could have the opportunity to be happy forever! In this time of year it is super important to remember all of that! So keep that in mind and also if you haven't already check out the new Christmas videos on the church's we site! https://www.mormon.org/christmas 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

-Elder Jacob Reed Kohler

November 30, 2015

11-30-15

A good week of giving thanks for sure! Things have been going well here! We started the week with a zone finding activity which turned out to be really cool! We set up tables down town with a big paper on each and asked people to write down things they are grateful for, as well as handed out cards for "The Festival of Lights," which is pretty much like the lights at temple square and they have concerts and things going on every night in December at the temple! I got to talk to a lot of people and a pretty solid amount in Spanish. I even got to give away a Book of Mormon to a Lady who seemed pretty interested! Great experience!

Then my comp and I were kind of looking around for some new investigators as we have had some problems lately with ours not keeping commitments. We ended up checking on a former investigator and he is really interested! We got talking with him and he pretty much just told us his life story! His dad and sister passed away from cancer and now his girlfriend has it so he is having a really tough time with that. We were able to share about the plan of salvation a little and he said he felt a special peace when he talked to us. I was able to bare my testimony about the spirit and we told him our message is the truth and can help him in his life. He wants to meet with us again and we are super excited to work with him! 

We then had thanksgiving and it was a pretty good day! We started the day only having one appointment during lunch and we had no clue what to do the rest of the day since we weren't allowed to proselyte. We were just getting ready for the day when we got a call from two different families asking us to come over for some food and to share a message! And the day ended up being great! I got some turkey and good desserts along with lots of rice haha. I was very thankful for it all! 

We finished off the week with having a ward play on family history and it was really... Interesting? They put a lot of hype into it and it was just kind of a funny play even though it wasn't meant to be haha. Reminded me a little of the Spanish soap operas my great grandma used to watch haha. Good times! 

Well I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving! The scripture I'd like to share with you guys is 2 Nephi 9:52! It is about praying to God all day in everything we need! Even the little things! And then at night we have to thank him for his hand in our lives and for all the blessings we have! I can promise you it'll bring you happiness and God will be able to rain down more blessings upon you! I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

-Elder Jacob Reed Kohler

November 23, 2015

11-23-15

Another solid week! So this week started off with a lot of member appointments and a couple meals. 

First I'll share a funny one! So we had correlation and then a meal appointment after, as we were driving to correlation we got a call that it was canceled so we called our appointment and asked if we could come early. He said we could and we headed there. As we walk up to the door we can hear the tv loud on some kind of sports game. As walked In I noticed it was soccer, then realized it was the Barcelona-Real Madrid Classico! He is a huge Barcelona fan and said he wasn't going to turn it off, and we didn't want to be rude so we just enjoyed it. It was funny but also super nice to be able to watch some soccer! It's been forever! Haha. 

At one of them I had a really cool experience! So we have a lady who had been a convert for about a year who invited us over for dinner. She is new but reminds me a lot of my mom! Super nice lady, lots of energy, and has a super strong testimony! You would never guess she is new to the church! We went in to teach her and were actually talking about testimonies. And she said she knew she had a testimony, it was just hard for her to share it cause she felt it wasn't very strong. I shared my first impression of her and how strong her testimony really was and she came to tears and kept thinking my companion and I. I really felt the spirit and knew it guided us to help her see how strong her testimony really is! 

This week we did a lot of service too! We helped at an event that was for a group called the IFC? It's the interfaith corporation or something? Pretty much it is a group that tries to support similarities in all the Faith's instead of fighting. So they had an event where people from different faiths sang and danced and gave speeches and it was pretty cool! We were able to do service by helping out with directing people and helping set up. It was really cool to see the different faiths and their traditional practices. 

We also did service at a soup kitchen! (Reminded me of the movie the other guys and I laughed) but we helped get food ready for homeless people. They do a big thing where they give free food to homeless people for thanksgiving and so we helped prepare a lot of the foods. We opened a ton of cans and cut pies and what not. It was cool to help them cause we burned through everything so fast! 

Lastly one of my favorite parts of the week! We had stake conference which was amazing! We had President Nelson come and speak to us and it was so cool! He came with Elder Hallstrom from the presidency of the 70. They were both powerful and great speakers! The spirit was so strong all the time! They came because it was the 75th anniversary of our stake, and we were getting a new stake presidency. They gave some powerful talks and it was also cool to hear from the old and new stake presidency. As well as our mission president spoke which was cool! 

Some of the highlights were they elder Hallstrom talked a lot about missionary work. For missionaries, but he talked more for members! The members are some of the greatest missionaries we have! It can be hard at times for missionaries to get that close relationship that a member can have! So it's important for members to work hard to be examples and missionaries always. He also talked about reverence and how it doesn't just mean being quiet. But being reverent is something we can do every day. We can show reverence in all our daily actions by choosing to do what God would want us to do, rather than what our natural self wants us to do. We need to think more to our spiritual side than our natural. 

And then President Nelson started off the first session with a crazy cool thing! He told a story of one of the old members of the 12, Elder Brown. They were at a temple dedication and were there with the wife of one of the members of the 12 who had just passed away. He told how Elder brown walked up to the wife and said, "I was with your husband last night and he wanted me to tell you he is doing alright, and that he loves you very much." That was crazy to hear, and then President Nelson went on to say he understands what Elder Brown meant now because he could feel the presence of the past stake presidents there! They had the six living stake presidents there and he said he could feel that the other six were there on the other side of the veil happy about the decision for the new stake president! It was honestly the coolest feeling of the spirit at that point! He continued to talk about how we aren't alone. How there are spirits guiding us now our lives! Guardian angels even who can help us and comfort us. This was super cool to hear from a prophet as I have had some pretty cool feeling about this before! He also talked about the atonement quite a bit! He talked about how it is the center to all our teachings in our church. And how understanding the atonement is the best thing we can do! In plain terms, it makes bad people good, and good people great! It helps strengthen us and guide us when we need it most! Thanks to all Christ did for us we can always have help to be better! I know and have seen that so much here! I am also so thankful for that! 

I also wanted to share Mosiah 4:6-7 which talks about the atonement! If we put our trust in the lord, than through the atonement we can have salvation and be happy forever! We just have to have faith and act on that faith! I'm so for the atonement and all it does! Study it up if you can! I love you all and have a great week! And a happy thanksgiving! 

And lastly congrats to Kayla and TJ on the wedding! So crazy to see pictures and hear about! I hope you guys have a happy marriage and remember God in all things! 

-Elder Jacob Reed Kohler