Jan 27th

I thought Ben was tall, not!

Dad,
I forgive you for your neglect. I thought maybe you were some sort of state employee taking the day off due to the holiday and thus refused to email.
Thanks for the GPS. The importance of the GPS cannot be expressed. I'd thank you for the time you took to buy it but if you have enough time to play Mario kart wii you have time for just about anything. (That's a joke, I really am grateful) We have been strangely blessed this week, in several ways, I will relate one of those ways to you, and the other to mom, so read hers as well.
First, while I was on an exchange with and English missionary, he came to our area we were visiting some potentials in an apartment building when we found a nice man from Yucatan, named Abel. He let us right in and the Spirit was stronger than strong in the lesson, which prompted him to interrupt and ask where the church is "that he could unite himself with and learn more." I quickly told him we could pick him up Sunday morning. Saturday night when I called to remind him he said, "I've been waiting for you to call all day...
I'm glad you remembered."
The next morning he came to church with a grateful heart and humble Spirit.
That night we gave him a baptismal date of 2/14. He happily agreed, already having gained a testimony of the restoration between church and our lesson that night. He loved it all.
The coolest part is, that he is actually moving to Florida next week to live with some family because there is a shortage of work here. So we will be giving him to the Floridians to finish the job, and he is already excited to share the gospel with his family and friends. From this I know that many will be brought to the Gospel including his wife and kids in Mexico, and his extended family in Florida. Elder Morelos is from Florida, and he goes home three days after Abel moves to Florida, so he is going to go to the baptism.
Talk about a miracle plus some in the making. After three days of knowing him he has already talked about the incredible change in his life, namely the joy he has found.... I can say little more about this man. The Lord had prepared him.. He's definitely one of the elect.
I know have a question for you relating to Cuba: some Cubans seem to believe that the church is in Cuba while others say it is not. If you could some how find out if it is or not I would greatly appreciate it. If it is, how many members? if it isn't, what would it take to get it there? Cubans are amazing people. Well dad I love you very much, thanks for everything. Don't get sore playing the wii. Do me a favor will ya? you and mom should treat yourselves to something nice, play some tanks tonight.
-Elder Jacobson

Mom,
We have two baptisms coming up on 2/7... another one in Florida on 2/14 (refer to dad's email) and a marriage date for a couple on 2/14 and their baptism date is 2/21... The people who are getting married have been taught since September, but are finally getting around to getting married so I'm lucky enough to see the end of this. Rafael is from El Salvador and Lisa is from the Marshall Islands. I have no idea how they communicate because they are both learning English, and they don't understand the other's native tongue, but they've been together several years now. When we teach Lisa we bring a guy who speaks Marshallese to translate for her, so it's been really fun. Lot of work but finally they're Getting married!!!
I put "!!!" because in that package you sent me it had letters from my missionaries friends and it seems like they always are typing exclamation points in needless areas!!!! it bothered me a lot!!! what's with all these?!?!?!?!? Exclamation points should be a rare occurrence!!!! And they should not be used in the following way, which I did see: so we talked to a guy named Juan at a bus stop today!!! Then we had p day!!!! Ate some lunch...!!!
Shoot, all these exclamation points are wearing me out!!!!! someone needs to stop them!!!!!!!!!!!
Well Mom I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep up the good work!!!!!!!!! Keep Praying hard!!!!!!!!! Mighty Prayer and Hard work is the key!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Elder Jacobson
John 8: 12
p.s. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Horrah for Missions!

Horrah for Missions!

Basically Elder Morelos and his last companion went through the phone book and organized every spanish name into a usuable "potential investigators"
paper. Now all we do is type in addresses, go to the house, and work to have them change their lives for their eternal betterment. But they all live so far away that it's impossible to memorize all the streets in this town. I have the main streets down but all the residential areas. Wow, I get lost.
So we had a baptism on Saturday. Morelos had been working with him before I got here and he was baptized finally. His name is Pedro, but we call him Pedrito. He is an amazing guy. He was a political prisoner in Cuba but has been here for two months. he had a bad accident and had to get his hip bolted. He showed us a picture. They have a big metal arm on his leg now. He wasn't able to walk for quite a while, let alone bend to be baptized. But once he decided to be baptized his recovery greatly hastend, miraculously, and he was baptized. Good man. Can't understand Cuban though. Read the following sentence and try to make sense of it and you will understand the difficulty of understanding cubans: yetay i wheno churt an toot uh sacamen.... Which translates to: yesterday I went to church and took the sacrament. Tough stuff considering I'm still learning regular spanish.
So how's everything going with you? Still living life to the fullest? I hope you find time to enjoy yourself between work, church, and finding people for the missionaries to teach (by inviting people to your home for dinner and telling them the missionaries are coming too). "when all is said and done the most important thing is to share the gospel." -Joseph Smith.

You spend a lot of time perfecting the saints, but neglect not the duties of proclaiming the Gospel to those currently out of it's reach. Speaking of which whatever happened to that Spanish pass along card that I sent you. I've been waiting to here of a baptism. I trust you gave it to someone...
Well I'm just about out of things to say, perhaps I'll give you and dad another generalized letter. I assume you both read each others anyway (you should be because it's pretty much intended that way) but it's good to generalize sometimes. One day I'll author another epistle like I did to Aaron but I'm just not feeling it right now. Thanks for all that you do. Remember, don't work hard, work smart. Or work hard and smart, that's the key.
-Elder Jacobson
D and C 42:14.

Transferred to Spokane 12/29

Elder Jacobson and Elder Garrett.

So Spokane is a very different area than Warden. We cover the entire city only searching for Spanish people. I went from the smallest area in the mission to the biggest area of the mission. The pressure has nearly consumed me, and my in adeptness of the language is wounding my soul. However, it will all work out eventually.
The snow here is out of control. It would be bad for Utah, but it's terrible for here because they haven't got a clue about how to plow roads. Other than that all is well. I saw that lady who you were emailing, it was kinda weird. Don't know her at all..
The work here is slower than in Warden but is more effective because Elder Morelos is the man. He's a baptizing machine, though the "numbers" have been lower. There are more than just Mexicans here unlike Warden. There are Cubans, Hondurans, El Salvadorians, etc. Cubans are impossible to understand as they talk faster than fast. Good people though. The gospel will spread like fire in a wheat field when it gets to Cuba.
I've been pretty lost the first few days and the task of working this area with someone who has less knowledge than me of the city is a bit overwhelming, so I'm trying to learn all I can from Morelos before he goes home.
Keep studying the gospel together and having family night even though you're almost empty nesters. Prioritize God, family, church, everything else. Don't put callings before family. love you! keep up the good work.
E Jacobson