Monday Feb. 16th 2009

To whom it may concern (mostly my Mother as this is her address):
I wish to express my thanks for the gift card to pizza hut as it provided a wonderfully satisfying meal all for no expense of mine. Thanks for the support, it's good to hear from you each week to hear how life in Utah is pretty much the same as it was when I left.
I really am at a loss for words at the moment... I'm kinda just hungry and I've been here too long so it's time to go. Just know that everything here is Spokane is going awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! and given the amount of exclamation points it must be the awesomest place ever. You can't argue with that many exclamation points. It may please you to hear that I am not requesting anything this week by way of package, as I have fallen into debt by the surprising number of packages that you have sent me. I want to be more frugal with my money as they are sacred funds. The simple life is the way to happiness. As one wise cantador wrote, "All you need is love." And as the other inspired revelator wrote, "God is Love." Remember, God loves you, and he has an important role for each of you to play. All you need is this love, let us all pray "with all energy of heart" that we may be endowed with Charity, and let it be accompanied with virtue "garnish our thoughts unceasingly." Let us be patient, and not just today, but tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. Patience is not patience unless it endures the torrent of time.
And with that I bid you adieu. I wish you (Mom, Dad, and Josh) a very merry trip and a happy relaxation period. may you use the time to marvel at the Lord's creations.
As you do these things by way of meditation a new light and love will enter your heart, a feeling of optimism and determination will replace feelings of negativity coupled with complacency.
I love you all (any who may be reading this), may the Good Lord bless and keep you.
SLY
-Elder Jacobson
John 3:16-17


I suppose 4 baptisms is a high goal... our branch had four in January... and the goal is 50 for the year. but I realize we're working with humble Lamanites so the field is unfair. The temple president spoke at stake conference yesterday and he talked about how the number of proxy endowments has decreased dramatically since the opening of the temple and he said he fears "that we are catching the Nephite disease." Those words were profound and awakened me to a sense of pride within my self. Thus I request your forgiveness of any pride that has been shown towards thee from me. I apologies and hopefully one day I may be found without it. What a terrible thing this pride, who needs it?

February 9th

Mom,
So today I'm in a trio in another area which explains the unprepared state of these emails. All I want to say is thank you for making us have family scripture study almost everyday, even though I disliked it very much and most of the time I would just be day dreaming anyway. I've learned the importance of it, and it's a habit which will be passed into my future family. So thank you for laboring to follow divine counsel. Hopefully you're still doing it even if you are just about empty nested. Next week's email should be packed with information about how sweet this area is and how awesome some of the people are, sorry about the neglect today. but I'm off. Love you -Elder Jacobson
Mom: DyC 4
Dad: John 8:12
both John 17:3s.

Dad,
My next companion is Elder Davila. He's from Peru but he lived in Provo from most of his life. Luckily his native language is Spanish so I think we'll be alright. the next thing is that they closed Spokane valley, and by that I mean that before we just covered the city and two other Elders covered the valley, but now we cover both the city and the valley, which doubles our work load, and quadruples our planning necessity. The next issue is that Morelos knew this city like the back of his hand and now he left... Elder Davila has been out one transfer less than me, but he's a good man. He was formerly in the Valley so I know him pretty well as we worked side by side last transfer.
We have several anticipated baptisms this month and had one on Saturday so everything is going well.
Thanks for all your support and keep doing what you do. Love you -Elder Jacobson

Ground hog day

Spokane Washington Temple

Mom,
You gotta love, the dia de la marmota. My companion looked at me blankly when I explained what ground hogs day is.
This coming week we will have two baptisms of two Cubans. Good people those Cubans. Jose Carlos Aguila, and Omar Cue. Omar was basically a JW, the only thing that held him back was his ex wife wouldn't let him be initiated through some sort of baptismal ritual. So he had a lot of JW knowledge. JW's doctrine is messed up, but they do have a lot of truth so we were able to work through that and he was humble enough to follow Moroni's commission, and now he's good to go. You gotta hand it to the JW's, they create dedicated people, and Omar is going to be amazing. He wants to come team teaching with us even though he's not a member yet, he'll make an excellent missionary. And he's so smart he'll make an excellent teacher.
Jose Carlos is 21 and he's only been in the US for a few months, but after seeing one relative and one friend baptized he felt the Spirit and was converted to golden.
We found two other goldenish investigators this week which we will be baptizing, if all goes well, the 28th of February.
keep the faith. It's all about faith, and hope... and of course Charity... and diligence.. and obedience... and like a million other things, but just keep the faith anyway.
-Elder Jacobson
Moroni 7:48

Dad,
Did you guys watch the super bowl? My companion pretty much told me I'm a horrible sinner for having watched it in the past. I didn't believe him.
Spokane is a beautiful City, though downtown is pretty small, it's cleaner than clean. I hope I can stay here into the summer time so that I can go to one of the many parks which they have here.
Glad you're staying busy at work. Don't stress about it, it no time you'll be laid off and be without work like everyone in Spokane. (I'm kidding, you're not going to be laid off, sorry if I frightened you. If that was rude feel free to rebuke me.) What I meant to say was in no time you'll retire with a miraculous acquisition of full benefits, so don't worry about it. Well I'm about out of time. Thanks for everything Dad.
-Elder Jacobson
Alma 34: 31-35