Week 10 - Happy New Year

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! I hope you all had fun during the Holidays :)

 

Life here has been good! The work is picking up so fast! So we're teaching a shy girl named Virginia, and we had an appointment set up with her. We were supposed to be to her apartment at 4 and it was 3:45. And for us to be able to go into her house we need a third guy! So we called everyone we could think of, desperate to find a guy! We prayed, then I suggested that we just head over to her apartment. So we stopped at a light, looked to the right, and next to us, we see the Mckinney brothers, two of the funniest, goofiest guys in our branch just smiling and waving at us. I rolled down the window, casually asked if they could come to a lesson, they said yes, followed us to her apartment, and had an awesome lesson!

 

Heavenly Father is so amazing, he takes care of us when our desires are righteous!

Well, I love you all!

 

Love,  Elder Higginson

Week 9 - Just after Christmas

From Dec. 28, 2015

 

Hi everyone! I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! And thank you so much to those who wrote a letter or sent me something, it made me feel really special :)

 

Christmas was awesome! My parents sent me lots of really nice things, but I didn't like that stuff as much as getting to Skype them! It was so awesome, I only cried a little bit I swear...

 

The last couple weeks have been wonderful! Everyone is just so much nicer during the Holidays! Which makes knocking on doors less scary! We're working with a handful of young single adults, all such amazing people! We're working with a nice girl named Jennifer, and we went over to her house for our second lesson. While we were talking, she randomly said, "Yeah, I don't know why but I just stopped drinking coffee." We were shocked! We haven't even taught her the word of wisdom yet.

 

I know that Heavenly Father is already preparing people to accept the gospel before we even get to them. Me and Elder Graham are getting along better than ever. We're a pretty effective duo! Well, I love you all! I'll send some pictures!

 Love, Elder Higginson

Week 8 - Almost Christmas

From Dec. 21, 2015 (Combination of Short Letter to Family and Letter to Dad)

Hello Family!

Wow, Christmas is so close! I absolutely love this time of year. People are just so much more loving towards others. I think Heavenly Father blesses the world with extra spirit to celebrate the birth of his Only Begotten Son. Life here is great! I'm really excited to skype my family on Christmas! I think about ALL of you all the time! I'm so sorry about the shortness of this email. We had hardly any time today! Just know that I love and pray for you all :)

Merry Christmas!  Love Elder Higginson

Hi Dad-

Pretty bummed cuz we have next to no time to email today... So this is going to be MUCH shorter than I'd like. First off, thanks for letting me know that people appreciate my emails, means a lot to me! I'm glad that family sent you the picture of us! The members here all love us it's pretty awesome! I can't wait to skype!!! It's gonna be on friday, probably later in the evening. I think we can call first to let you know! We have 40 minutes to skype, unless we have 2 families. Then we get 30 minutes for each family! We haven't had to bike yet which is nice!!!

(Jacob learned that BYU lost to Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl)  Wow.. typical BYU hahhahah we suck!!! Whatever, their fans know they're dirt bags.. Haha I'm glad Star Wars was good! People here have been freaking out about it! Some dumb guy in our branch though it was funny to ruin the ending for me........ SO not funny haha! Our Mount Rainier climb was super fun!!! TONS of snow up there!

Haha we're getting hair cuts today actually! Not too pumped about it haha! Working out isn't bad! I'm probably about the same weight as when I left, still could destroy Mitty though! :)

I'm excited to see where Carson is going! Such a good guy.  Okay well, sad short email. Love you Dad! I'm excited to Skype you all! I hope Christmas is fun for you and all the kids!!!

Love, Jake

Week 7 - Mt. Rainier

From Dec. 15, 2015-

It was transfers yesterday so P day is today! I'm excited we're gonna hike Mount Rainier today! Should be pretty cool, I'll take lots of pictures!  Christmas out here is cool! Makes talking to people around us a lot easier! I'm excited to skype you all! Me and Elder Graham are good friends! We never like got angry but as I've been forcing myself to not get irritated we've gotten closer! 

Wow, it's hard to imagine how hard it was for Jesus, AND Heavenly Father. We literally can't imagine the pain he felt. How sad that He was hurting so bad that he asked Heavenly Father if there was another way? And there wasn't, so he kept hurting. Makes me want to be a better person! Make sure you read your scriptures daily, Dad :)  I'm so much happier when I'm reading my scriptures every day! I probably read for 45 minutes a day! And I'm ACTUALLY enjoying reading them :) I've definitely learned to love Heavenly Father and Jesus more out here. You're a rock Dad, that's what we call the members here who never go inactive or ever question if the church is true. We love those types of members. How blessed am I that I was born into a family of ROCKS. I'm so much more appreciative of my family.

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders the other day, pretty fun! Elder Anderson said I was doing fantastic! The assistants listened to some of my role plays too, and they were really impressed :)

 

Sorry my emails are so short! 

 

Okay, I miss you! Love you!!!  Jake

Week 5 (Thanksgiving Week)

Well, I'm pretty much out of email time.. So please excuse the shortness of this email! First off thank you so much everyone who's emailing me! Means a lot!  

I heard about your Thanksgiving! Sounds so fun, glad you're all surviving at home without me ;) For Thanksgiving our whole mission had a fun sports day at the church! We played a ton of basketball and volleyball! Later we had a fun dinner at our Branch President's house!

Life is good here, just insanely cold! Things in the Branch are great! Everyone there is so fun, being in the YSA is a blast! Elder Graham signed us up to sing in sacrament.. Guess we'll see how that goes huh?

(in response to my report about BYU's continued mediocrity)Haha wow BYU sucks but maybe in 2 years they'll be good? I don't know.. like Rob always says "BYU sucks!" hahaha that kinda stuff always makes me laugh, not even kidding! I'm always thinking about the family and the funny stuff
we's always do! Like making Gandpa say "6 Mixed Biscuits" Hahahaha still kills me!

(of course I had to tell him about Ronda Rousey) Wow, I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me about Rousey getting DESTROYED! At the MTC my whole district was talking about if Maywether fought Rousey and eventually everyone was trying to convince me that Rousey would beat Maywether! Such garbage! Glad she got wrecked!

Thanks for the Malt-O-Meal tips! I'll be sure to try it out! oh yeah!

I'd really love to make these emails longer but you know how it is. I miss the dumb funny stuff you'd do like wearing Logan's football helmet! The picture of you with the Captain America mask at the dump killed me!!! 

I'll do anything to amuse my kids.

I pray for all of you daily! Love you so much, and I'm always thanking Heavenly Father for the family he blessed me with. I'll write more next week! We invited a nice girl named Paris to be baptized and she said YES! We're so excited! Love you ALL!

Love,
Elder Higginson

 

Note from the Editor (aka: Dad): this post is a combination of his mass email, and an email he wrote to me. He includes details that should be included in his Blog.

Week 4

Elder Graham and Elder Higginson

Hey everyone! Crazy week, lot's going on! Being in a YSA branch is awesome! Everyone there really likes me and Elder Graham! 

Taught some weird people lately.. One lady was a witch. Like, she was telling us about her religion and how she's a witch and can cast spells and stuff, pretty cool! 

We're teaching an 18 year old right now named Nate. He's kind of anti Mormon, so teaching him is interesting! We're always really careful not to Bible bash! Pretty fun stuff. 

Yesterday while we were driving around looking for a good neighborhood to knock doors, I jokingly said "Wouldn't it be nice if the people ready to hear the Gospel had green lights over their houses and the people not ready had red lights? It would save lots of time." 

And a couple seconds later we saw a house with a green light on it.. So of course we knocked on the door! And it was a young guy (YSA age) and he was so ready! We have an appointment with him tomorrow! I thought that was pretty dang cool. 

Glad you got the picture from the Vazquez family! I was excited when she offered to do that! Elder Graham is from Roosevelt, Utah! Haha he's a good missionary, we get along!

You asked about how we spend P-Day (aside from laundry).  We usually just email on P day and get some fast food with other Elders but today we're playing some basketball and throwing the frisby! Should be pretty fun! 

We have a lot of options for thanksgiving! We'll probably eat at the Branch President's house, his wife is a really good cook! It's really cool the branch loves us! I like being in the YSA! There are a couple INSANELY attractive girls, so I have to keep the blinders on. hahaha! Oh well. 

Hey, we had Malt O' Meal the other day! Made me think of home! Wanna send me the recipe to make it how you make it!? That would be awesome! 

Dad I got a haircut! Hahaha you were absolutely right, like... it's not bad, but it's for sure not good! Yours were WAY better!  Oh well, maybe I should be happy about it, that way the ladies lay off a little.. (; 

Well again we don't have much time to write.. I'll send a picture of me and Elder Graham! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'll miss being with you but I know I need to be out here. Love you all so much!!!

Love,

Elder Higginson

Note from the Editor (aka: Dad):  this post is a combination of his mass email, and an email he wrote to me.  He includes details that should be included in his Blog. 

Dinner With The Vazquez Family

On Saturday evening, Nov. 21, I got a text from a number I didn't recognize.  I opened the message and there was a great picture of Jacob and his companion, Elder Graham...along with a family.  This message was sent with the picture:

This is Taera Vazquez.  Your son came to our house for dinner in Spanaway.  He had a wonderful testimony and we greatly appreciated him sharing it with us. My son goes to the Singles Branch where they serve.

So not only did the Vazquez family invite Jacob into their home and feed him, they also took the time to send a picture and message to Jacob's parents.  Needless to say, it made our day!  Thank you so much, Sister Vazquez!!

Elder Higginson, Elder Graham, and the Vazquez family in Spanaway, WA