April 7, 2014
This week, of course, was conference weekend! As a missionary, it's
one of the only times in your life that you hear the words of our
leaders and apply them directly and immediately and often! I think
that May be why missionaries love conference so much! So if you don't
like watching 10 hours of talks in one weekend, find more ways to
directly apply the talks to your life! That's what we love it so
much....anyways
This week definitely felt really quick but as I look back, I
remember all e Inge we did, and it seems a lot longer than it feels. I
feel like this week is a little microcosm of my mission overall- seems
really short but in reality was the most action-packed part of 4
minutes anyone could ever imagine;)
It seems like everywhere we go, older women fall in love with us! No
joke we call bingo for woman with a seeming age unlimit of at least
85... But they literally gave us a standing ovation when we walked in
the door...celebs at heart, always. On Tuesday we asked for directions
from a bunch of people in a bus stop, and little did we know it was a
bus stop full of drunk-yet friendly and talkative- people, who then
proceeded into a 40minute conversation with us...and yes there was an
older lady who again fell in love with us there. But pretty much every
day is an adventure here, and we're experiencing a lot of miracles as
well. Basically right now we're in the process of having faith to find
people who are really ready and seeking the gospel in their life.
There are a lot of people who will let you on the door just because
they're lonely or they are just bored, but sometimes just because you
have a busy schedule doesn't mean you're as effective as you could be
in fulfilling your purpose as a missionary. This area has had a
history of slacking a bit and we're working on revamping:)
So this week at conference what really stuck out to me was the
emphasis of charity and courage. With the pure love of Christ, all
other necessary attributes required to be happy in this life will flow
naturally as we interact in our daily lives. There are times in our
lives when the natural man wants to react a certain way, whether it be
by snapping back at someone, or by letting our faith slip through the
cracks. But with the pure love of Christ we can constantly keep the
spirit with us and both those natural man's instincts will be avoided.
Conference was really uplifting for me, and I love the testimonies of
the prophets and apostles. Their experiences can be our experiences if
we seek them as they do. I love teaching the gospel and having a
constant desire and obligation to share with people that which I love.
That's pretty much what missionary work is haha not too bad huh?
Love,
Elder Hirschi
Enviada do meu iPad
Monday, April 21, 2014
St. Paddy's Day Week!!
March 24th, 2014
Ok so this week we didn't celebrate St. Paddy's Day at all, I just needed a title. I think it was last Monday anyways right?
Ok so this week we didn't celebrate St. Paddy's Day at all, I just needed a title. I think it was last Monday anyways right?
Anyway, this week was truly spectacular. Ever since I got to this area, I've been craving it to just catch on fire. We haven't really seen this area live up to its true potential in a really long time, and we've decided to be the missionaries to get it there! Or at least to get it on its way there. So this week I think we finally saw some fruits of our labors. It was jam packed almost every day, and we have next week pretty much packed until Thrusday, and it's only Monday! And I don't think it's due to our own efforts. Sometimes it's our job to put forth the willingness and the faith, but ultimately God directs your efforts and turns effort into fruit. We've been able to contact people that haven't been contacted in years, and often it's because we simply caught them in the right place at the right time. We're teaching a lot of people, and working with a lot of people that haven't been coming to church for a while. Although at times it's really frustrating and depressing to see people not change their lives for the better, and do things you know will help them, you can't help but feel for these people. I'm actually not really ready to go to Brazil or leave this area because there's simply a lot of unfinished business. The potential is there, but it just takes time to get there. Patience is a virtue haha, and I've learned that in a way I probably couldn't ever learn besides being on a mission (or maybe by being married ;) ).
So one example of this coincidental (but really not) we really wanted to find the address to a guy who has talked to missionaries before. We called him a thousand times and he never answered. So last week, I made Elder Powers follow me in trying to find this address. I just couldn't give up because we asked too many people for directions not to eventually find the address haha. We seriously asked like 5 people if they knew where this street was, and they all said yes, but somehow we never got to the street haha go figure. As we continue our search, we suddenly showed up at this random building, that looked like a high school in the middle of a bunch of trees, kind of hidden from the rest of the streets we had been searching. Basically, we ended up deciding to just ask one more person in this place if they knew where the street was! Turns out, this was the place where a man lived whose name was mentioned at a dinner we were at, then never mentioned again. No big thing, but for some reason we had randomly shown up at this man's address, at a perfect time, because he was up in his room (the place turned out to be a nursing home haha), and hadn't been visited by missionaries for years. No doubt the Lord put us there for a reason. It wasn't because we would see another perfect baptism from it. It was for this man, who hadn't been visited, and was lonely. We gave him another Book of Mormon, and walked away, knowing the Lord had used us as instruments in His hands to visit a lonely old man, or as He sees him, a lonely Child of God.
One more quick miracle: We were biking way far away from our house, trying to find a lady, who wasn't actually home (ALWAYS get phone numbers haha it's so much easier!). A little bit discouraged, we biked past a guy who's car was totally stuck in his muddy driveway. Not that we had any really means to pull this car out of the mud, we still asked him. Turns out a bunch of small miracles happened and we ended up getting the car out, then talking to him about all kinds of stuff, including Katy Perry, Iluminati, and Unicycling. And the Book of Mormon and religion haha of course. But he told us he was a professional Unicyclist and toured Europe with a group called the King Charles Unicylcing Troupe. Naturally we didn't really believe him haha but here ya go! Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77MuklU32lQ
Check it out!
So pretty much all in all, fantastic week!
Love,
Elder Hirschi
9 months- This week!
March 17, 2014
So yes, this week I think will be the mark of 9 months out on a mission. 9 months of completely unexpected surprises and completely foreign (hehe not international mind you) experiences. I've loved it, truly. Although a mission is always full of ups and downs, I've come to know that the ups are always more meaningful when you rely on the Savior to pull you through the downs. Getting through difficult situations is so much harder on your own. Sometimes it really is impossible to do it on our own. People get tripped up on the phrase; "God will never give you anything you can't handle." They don't believe it. But the truth is, God will never give you anything you can't handle without the help of His Son. Without Christ, and without the Spirit, we wouldn't be able to handle certain things. But if we seek the support of the Spirit, we can handle these things. With the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can handle these things. I'm saying I'm going through any huge trials at the moment, but people all around us are. Regardless of where we are, in every city there will be people that can benefit from someone just telling them that the Spirit is there to help. Our savior is there, but we have to hold out our hand to find Him. It's cool to talk about these things but it's even better to see these principles play out in real life. That's why we're on missions. To experience what the gospel really is, in real life. I definitely can say that this is what I've been able to experience. And I have 15 more months of "experiencing" to do!
So yes, this week I think will be the mark of 9 months out on a mission. 9 months of completely unexpected surprises and completely foreign (hehe not international mind you) experiences. I've loved it, truly. Although a mission is always full of ups and downs, I've come to know that the ups are always more meaningful when you rely on the Savior to pull you through the downs. Getting through difficult situations is so much harder on your own. Sometimes it really is impossible to do it on our own. People get tripped up on the phrase; "God will never give you anything you can't handle." They don't believe it. But the truth is, God will never give you anything you can't handle without the help of His Son. Without Christ, and without the Spirit, we wouldn't be able to handle certain things. But if we seek the support of the Spirit, we can handle these things. With the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can handle these things. I'm saying I'm going through any huge trials at the moment, but people all around us are. Regardless of where we are, in every city there will be people that can benefit from someone just telling them that the Spirit is there to help. Our savior is there, but we have to hold out our hand to find Him. It's cool to talk about these things but it's even better to see these principles play out in real life. That's why we're on missions. To experience what the gospel really is, in real life. I definitely can say that this is what I've been able to experience. And I have 15 more months of "experiencing" to do!
So a couple fantastic things happened this week. Probably more than that. But for now, I'll tell a couple. On Wednesday we got slammed with a great winter storm- New York went into another state of emergency haha it really wasn't that much snow- just a ton of blowing snow around so as to blind the driver and give everyone frostbite. So everyone was advised to stay inside (police could pull you over and give you a ticket if they wanted to) and avoid all unnecessary travel. Well, we had a couple necessary appointments to go to, so yes, in the words of a confused onlooker, we went "witnessing" during the New York snowstorm, in the worst winter in NY in decades. No biggie. We weren't outside all day, though. We called it quits after late afternoon. DIEHARD WITNESSERS!
The weather is funny here, just as it is everywhere it seems, because a couple days after the storm it was warm at 54 degrees. So all the snow melts, and we end up trying to bike through massive cricks that form in the sidewalks, trying to go really slow so we don't get muddy water all over our white shirts. But most of the time, we fail, and ruin our shirts...actually Elder Powers is the only one that ruins his shirts haha he's destroyed 2 of them and he's only been here 3 weeks! It's great...
Our ward also had their annual cake auction to raise money for their Scout Camp in the summer. It's a massive spaghetti dinner where people make cakes and bring them, and people sped anywhere from $30-$120+ on any single cake. So naturally we made a cake, and it looked just delectable. Me and Elder Powers spent some precious time baking brownies and drowning them in frosting in between our planning sessions. So our cake was all vamped up to get anywhere from 100-$200 right because it was made by the Elders? The auctioneer seemed like he was saving ours for last, for a final big bang right? Well, no. He began at $15 (most started at $40) and ended up bidding DOWN, but eventually got up to $40! What a rip, but at least we helped slice off the price for one kid's scout camp.
As a missionary you're always stressed about your area not living up to its potential. As a trainer, I'm always worried that I'm not being the best I can be, to show my trainee how it's done. Our numbers were not as high as I wanted them. But this week I learned the lesson that it's only about us working as hard as we can, not necessarily getting the best "numbers." It was a great week on really taking a look at myself and changing things that needed to be changed. Or at least knowing what I need to change. Hard to explain. But I'll end this massive email with a link to one of my new favorite (but really old) talks.
Love,
Elder Hirschi
I'm having a baby!!!
Attn: "having a baby" in the mission field refers to training a new (baby) missionary!
Sorry this email has taken so long to get out, but the past few days have been nothing short of CRAZY! On Friday I get a call from President, informing me that I'm going to be a trainer, which means a brand new missionary is coming to the mission, and I'm his new companion, in charge of making sure he does things right! Sort of... but I'm really excited. On Monday we had to go to a meeting and Elder Hales was packing all day, so we didn't have time to email. Today, Tuesday, we've been running around Western New York trying to get my new companion's stuff organized and in order. A couple FYI's:
Sorry this email has taken so long to get out, but the past few days have been nothing short of CRAZY! On Friday I get a call from President, informing me that I'm going to be a trainer, which means a brand new missionary is coming to the mission, and I'm his new companion, in charge of making sure he does things right! Sort of... but I'm really excited. On Monday we had to go to a meeting and Elder Hales was packing all day, so we didn't have time to email. Today, Tuesday, we've been running around Western New York trying to get my new companion's stuff organized and in order. A couple FYI's:
1) My new companion's name is Elder POWERS! He is also waiting to go to Brazil. He's an absolute stud, and I think he doesn't really need a trainer but it'll be fun anyway.
2) Usually our set of four missionaries has two cars. We just lost our car, and so now we are on BIKES! I'm excited, but mom can I request one more thing? I know I've cost you a lot of money recently, but could I have my big fat jacket I bought last year for school shipped out to me? No big rush but that coat is seeming really nice right about now. Really nice.
3) My old companion, Elder Hales, got moved to a wonderful place called Nunda. Out in the boonies, where the most faithful friends you make are cows! No, it's great area, just out in the boonies, that's all.
Well, I'm just about to get kicked off the computer, but just thought I'd let you know that I'm safe and sound here in Greece, New York, and that I have a new baby!
Have a greaaat week!
Love,
Elder Jake Hirschi
ps mom I got the piano music and I love it thanks so much it will definitely be one of the highlights of my pdays coming up. Thank you!
You're emailing from where??!!
Feb 10, 2014. So there's big news this week in the New York Rochester mission! All
the missionaries officially have IPads! apparently there's only 30 or
so missions worldwide that have them, but usually we use these paper
planner things and now we've said goodbye to the paper and we use
IPads to plan things and schedule things etc etc so I am currently
typing on my own IPad mini...I don't know how I feel about it but for
the time being I have no choice haha
So this week I don't have much to report on because I've been a
little sick but I'm definitely a lot better now. I'm t the church
right now and a really great family (the Suprenant's) from my last
ward just surprised me by inviting the whole zone to the church for a
little get together including games and cake. They're so great haha
they put together a little video that I'll attempt to send via this
iPad. I'm so iPad illiterate it's not even funny but I'll get there!
So today has been really great I got all the packages in the mail,
big thank you to Everyone for the packages and cards. I promise the
thank you notes will come more on time than the Christmas cards haha I
also need to send a couple pictures from a recent baptism, but I'll do
that next Pday when I send this weekend's baptism pics. The other
missionaries in my ward are having a baptism and we're way excited for
it!
Thank you so much for making this day special even though I'm away
from home! Love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Jake Hirschi
Enviado via iPad
the missionaries officially have IPads! apparently there's only 30 or
so missions worldwide that have them, but usually we use these paper
planner things and now we've said goodbye to the paper and we use
IPads to plan things and schedule things etc etc so I am currently
typing on my own IPad mini...I don't know how I feel about it but for
the time being I have no choice haha
So this week I don't have much to report on because I've been a
little sick but I'm definitely a lot better now. I'm t the church
right now and a really great family (the Suprenant's) from my last
ward just surprised me by inviting the whole zone to the church for a
little get together including games and cake. They're so great haha
they put together a little video that I'll attempt to send via this
iPad. I'm so iPad illiterate it's not even funny but I'll get there!
So today has been really great I got all the packages in the mail,
big thank you to Everyone for the packages and cards. I promise the
thank you notes will come more on time than the Christmas cards haha I
also need to send a couple pictures from a recent baptism, but I'll do
that next Pday when I send this weekend's baptism pics. The other
missionaries in my ward are having a baptism and we're way excited for
it!
Thank you so much for making this day special even though I'm away
from home! Love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Jake Hirschi
Enviado via iPad
March Madness
Sorry this email has taken so long to get out, but the past few days have been nothing short of CRAZY! On Friday I get a call from President, informing me that I'm going to be a trainer, which means a brand new missionary is coming to the mission, and I'm his new companion, in charge of making sure he does things right! Sort of... but I'm really excited. On Monday we had to go to a meeting and Elder Hales was packing all day, so we didn't have time to email. Today, Tuesday, we've been running around Western New York trying to get my new companion's stuff organized and in order. A couple FYI's:
1) My new companion's name is Elder POWERS! He is also waiting to go to Brazil. He's an absolute stud, and I think he doesn't really need a trainer but it'll be fun anyway.
2) Usually our set of four missionaries has two cars. We just lost our car, and so now we are on BIKES! I'm excited, but mom can I request one more thing? I know I've cost you a lot of money recently, but could I have my big fat jacket I bought last year for school shipped out to me? No big rush but that coat is seeming really nice right about now. Really nice.
3) My old companion, Elder Hales, got moved to a wonderful place called Nunda. Out in the boonies, where the most faithful friends you make are cows! No, it's great area, just out in the boonies, that's all.
Well, I'm just about to get kicked off the computer, but just thought I'd let you know that I'm safe and sound here in Greece, New York, and that I have a new baby!
Have a greaaat week!
Love,
Elder Jake Hirschi
ps mom I got the piano music and I love it thanks so much it will definitely be one of the highlights of my pdays coming up. Thank you!
Fastest week evaaa!!!
On Feb 3, 2014, at 3:52 PM, Jacob Hirschi wrote:
This week truly has been the fastest week ever. It was jam packed with STUFF. I think it was this week we had a snow day (cold day) on Tuesday. I couldn't even tell you if it was this week or last, it all just runs together. But one of these days it was -25 with windchill... Satan really has his hand in the temperature this week...
Anyway this week on Sunday night we heard some good news- there's a mom, and her two sons who live in the ward. The boys were going to get baptized (ages 8 and 10) but the Dad, who moved, wouldn't allow it. This was about a month and a half ago. But apparently before I got here, the mom needed help moving, and it turned into the hardest move anyone had ever done, which included moving everything really short notice, and finally ending at 1 am. The dad was really touched by this, and he ended up having a softened heart enough to start learning from the missionaries. On Sunday, we got a call that the Dad would be coming in town on Wednesday, and wanted to get baptized that weekend (Saturday). So we had to seriously scram, and I can't even explain how much difficulty we had trying to get everything ready for it. But after a week of really not knowing if everything would work out, Saturday night we had the baptism of....... It was such a perfect experience, especially because it was the first time I had the opportunity to actually baptize someone myself. I baptized little S, who is in the attached picture. Then, on Sunday, I was able to lay my hands on his head and confirm him a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and give him the Holy Ghost. Such a cute little family, with a deep understanding of the gospel, and more faith than most. So that was definitely a highlight of not only my week, but of the mission overall.
Perhaps the greatest miracle I've witnessed on my mission happened YESTERDAY! Tune in!
So in my last area, we were teaching a recently baptized member of the church, and everything was going downhill for her. She had lost her job and couldn't find another one. She had tragedies in her family. She was butting heads with the landlord, who ultimately took her to court and evicted her. She was to be out of the house by TODAY. This woman caused more stress and distress in my life than anyone else so far haha because she was starting to have shaken faith and started testing God, making her faith conditional. Each time she presented more bad news she got angry, and you couldn't help but have part of your heart wrenched because of her poor circumstances! This is fairly abnormal for me, as my family can attest :) So the day before I was sent to this area she got news from the landlord that she needed to get out, and she was hurting and struggling and just didn't know what to do. And I couldn't do anything about it or even see her anymore because I was leaving! It was tough. BUT hear this: yesterday I get a call from her, and she explains a story. She was going to the courthouse when they said she couldn't avoid the eviction because she didn't apply or "serve" properly. And she was having trouble getting any welfare because you need a signed paper from your landlord, and her landlord wasn't having it. So basically she was on her way to a homeless shelter, thinking "God had let everything run out for her." BUT! walking "home", she got a call from one of the apartments she had checked on earlier. They had an opening, and it was half the price of her current place. She hung up, thanking God. THEN, she got another call from a job she had applied for earlier, saying her application had gone through and she might have it. I couldn't believe it was true, that such a dramatic miracle had taken place in her life. God will never fail us nor forsake us, and what a fantastic lesson I learned yesterday. It's one of those moments I'll literally remember for the rest of my life. Plus the baptism on Saturday. So yeah, pretty great week!
Love,
Elder Jake Hirschi
ps poor Broncos I thought they'd take the cake:(
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