April 13th

Mom,
So when Josh graduates does he come home or what does he do? I don't even know. No one told me. Thanks for the package and for the ties each month, they are quickly turning into the best ties that I have, so keep up the good choices. This week was pretty slow but it set us up for an amazing week this week.
We should be having some baptisms coming up here. It's been too long since the last one. Spokane is just one step away from an explosion of baptisms : FAITH
I told dad about the people we are going to be teaching in the hospital so you might want to check that story out. I think it will pan out pretty well. We biked the other day for the first time in months and it left my back side incredibly uncomfortable, but I quickly recovered. I think I'm getting old. Luckily the Howards are hooking me up with stuff that should be improving my health. When you talk to them you need to ask them about all their secrets. Just mention the words: magnets, bacteria, pressure points, and leg lengths. They'll tell you the rest. I'm telling you, they have unlimited secrets, just say those words to prompt the secret spilling. It will change your life, no doubt.
Thanks for everything Mom, I love you very much.
-Elder Jacobson
D and C 4

Dad,
Training is pretty intense, pretty much I have to do like 10 times more than I used to, it's pretty overwhelming but you learn a lot. How many times did you train?
Everything is going good and we are going to start throwing people on date for baptism this week so we are really excited. We have one golden investigator who is held back by work on sundays and we have a couple really really close to golden investigators.
There are two people who came to church yesterday, they are living temporarily in the hospital here and have been here for 3 months, and will be here for another three months. They came from Mexico and are just awaiting a surgery for their kids foot. We're going to try and teach them in the hospital so this should be pretty intense.
Thanks for everything dad. Love you.
-Elder Jacobson
Mosiah 7.33

April 6

Mother,
Josh will be fine, he will just have to learn how to rely on the Lord in an incredibly different way than he did on his mission. He'll be having experiences completely new to any of us, and he'll be fine. Good man that brother of mine.
I know what you mean when you say that the more you pray for miracles the harder things get. That's just a test the Lord lays down to see how serious you are about getting these miracles. March of Miracles was a tough month because there were few instant miracles, most of the miracles are still developing and we will see the harvest with time, in this Astonishing April.
So two nights in a row we had really powerful lessons. Last week when we taught about the Book of Mormon the Spirit was so undeniably strong and I have no doubt that Jorge (the investigator) felt it two. The next week we taught him again and we felt the same spirit; each time time I had to fight back tears. Then last night this guy was reduced to tears when we talked about the atonement and it's ability to free us from guilt and shame. He's ready for the atonement to free him from his past.
Mom thanks so much for the support and the weekly emails. I appreciate all you do for me. This month is going to be a good one. Love the Mission. Love you Mom.
-Elder Jacobson
D y C 31

Dad,

Quick, hook me up with advice on training a new missionary.
Everything is going good in Spokane, we are looking forward to a very wet April 11, as of right now one is scheduled, but we want to get 7... it'll take a miracle.
hopefully we get some funny stories with the greenie so I'll hook you up with them.
Elder Davila and I have a bad habit of having eating competitions, which I almost always win even though he's 40 pounds more than me. Our last competition was curry. It made me sicker than sick, I think it gave me the flu, I could hardly see straight or walk straight. Luckily I was given the strength to still deliver my talk in church. Whom the Lord calls he qualifies.

My greenie is whiter than white, but he speaks OK Spanish, he just can't understand any of the natives yet. Things are going well though so far.
He hasn't tried to lay down to study though, they get you out of that habit in the mtc.
We had a tough week as far as current visual success, but we did find 5 new investigators that should produce something, if not I'll be extremely disappointed.
I will just assume that you sent me an email but it didn't work. I just have a question, can Josh read his email?
Hopefully you're enjoying being an empty Nester, crazy how time flies right? So we had some amazing lessons this week and I think my testimony of the Book of Mormon multiplied by about 100. The spirit and feelings which enveloped my soul as I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon are undeniable.
It was a feeling that I had never before felt; it's an indescribable feeling. The Book of Mormon is true. I'm excited to go tell more people about it.
Thanks for everything Dad, I love you. keep up the good work.
-Elder Jacobson
1 Nephi 1:1

Mom and Father,
I felt like the other emails were pretty heartless and for that I apologize. When we come to play basketball and email, people pressure you to get off so that we can go play basketball instead of checking email.
But things here are going really well. Yesterday actually was the worst Sunday I've ever had in the mission though. There are a number of excuses that we could make for it, but the truth is that we just need to work differently. The work has hit bottom and it's still going good, so we are going to renovate the way we work - actually applying what the Mission President and Mission Leaders teach, and Spokane is going to burst with success, as long as we have patient perseverance. The March of Miracles is coming to an end with an astonishing number of miracles, thus ushering in the proceeding month, "An Astonishing April!" Things are going to go well in April, even better than in March which was exceptional. Basically we are going to revolutionize the way members think and work, we are going to change the culture of our Spanish branch with Charity creating a culture of growth, relying on the members. It's time to capacitate our members with the skills and abilities to invite friends and acquaintances to church. (I don't know why people are afraid to lose a friendship by making a charitable invitation to attend church with them.) As long as it is a charitable invitation it won't fail, and it won't kill a friendship, even if they decline the offer, at least they know they are invited.
That's pretty much a preview of what is going to happen, and next month we are going to see the fruits of that. It's going to be an exciting month.
One of the miracles - too many to currently relate - is that a family who kept cancelling and we couldn't get something set up with for about 6 weeks, suddenly set something up with us and we taught them and they want to come to church and learn more. It all happened all of a sudden when Elder Gleed showed up. The Lord is preparing his people for the right people.
I'm glad you were able to spend some time with Brother Aaron, the kid is alright!
Everything is Spokane is going well. The Lord is really trying our faith, but I think it's all getting set up for next month. The miracles of this month will be setting up a very Astonishing April. We found a really amazing family. They are really awesome, just too busy for their own good and I think they know that too.
The Lord has really been blessing me with Spanish, as I've been able to understand nearly everything (except cubans and some things I think I'm better of not knowing) which wasn't possible just a few weeks ago.
Hope everything is going good in the nest which has gone startlingly empty. It'll be filled with grand-chicks (children) very soon. Sooner than you think. Time flies when you're havin fun right?
Love you very much. Have a great week.
-Elder Jacobson